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I notice that many good books within English speaking countries that are African themed go out of print quick or end up in the bargin bin. Why is this? Worth noting is books on Northern Africa, the Arabian peninsula,or eastern Africa are hard to find in English speaking countries.
Some examples of this are most of Ivan Van Sertima,Basil Davidson,and any other authors who have wonderful books but are not acessible. Van Sertima's books are pricey used and will most likely be out of print soon. Diop's books might suffer a similar fate.
Lots of more academic titles on Africa are pricey even when used. Does anybody know any company that specilize in used books about Africa?
What are the factors? Not enough interest?
Posts: 8675 | From: Tukuler al~Takruri as Ardo since OCT2014 | Registered: Feb 2003
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This search engine will bring up competitive prices for books that are used and out of print. It is very rare that I can't find a book that I'm looking for.
posted
I know there is quite a bit of interest. I see people that buy them for reasons being as broad as; african/american, history, general interest, for the coffee table in their themed room.
But Africa is just one of those places that we know so much about. We've (general public) seen so many documentaries, movies, pictures, articles, etc. That maybe a lot of it is starting to look the same. ??? I know when I skim one, pretty much the same stuff. Not always, but mostly.
Anyway, just a thought.
-------------------- شكرا و أللام عليكم شيبى Posts: 2133 | From: Redneckland | Registered: Oct 2006
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Want much stuff on African history, perhaps the best place to look towards, is French publications. There are many French speaking African scholars, whose works we are yet to fully glean material from. In fact, Diop was one of them; just happened to be one of the most translated amongst them, from French to English.
Posts: 5964 | Registered: Jan 2005
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After reading a few articles and viewing some higher level so called academics i am starting to appreciate everyone in this field has a hidden agenda or comes to the investigation with way too much bias. Alot of it is fellow egyptologists trying to shootdown others as quickly as possible. This is one of the contributing reasons why someones theory is replaced by anothers'. It will take a pure heart, sole and perhaps an outsider to take a birds eye view of the situation and write something that will last longer than 10 years.
Posts: 104 | Registered: Jan 2007
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Books, any books, go out of print for financial reasons primarily. No publisher or distributer is going to kill its golden geese. If book A doesn't sell N copies in X amount of time, zikt, its out of print.
quote:Originally posted by Supercar: Want much stuff on African history, perhaps the best place to look towards, is French publications. There are many French speaking African scholars, whose works we are yet to fully glean material from. In fact, Diop was one of them; just happened to be one of the most translated amongst them, from French to English.
True indeed, all of books I have, even Hiernaux's are in French so thats where I get alot of info from too.
Posts: 2595 | From: Vicksburg | Registered: Feb 2006
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