Sell, Sell, Sell!


Neal Stephenson is republishing his 1984 debut novel, The Big U. Stephenson's cult status among geeks, combined with its seriously-out-of-print status, have combined to push prices for a of the original cheap paperback edition up into the hundreds of dollars. One fellow on Amazon's zShops is asking $650. I'd have to say that it looks as though the market for copies of The Big U is about to tank in a way that'll make NASDAQ stocks look like good long-term investments. If you've got a copy and you're ever planning to get rid of it, I'd advise selling now before news of the republication spreads much further.

Of course, if you don't have a copy and can't wait until February, there's always good old-fashioned Internet samizdat.