Collideoscope

Posted by: David Bunch

Note to Collidescope readers: never follow Dave's book collecting advice.

When I blogged the month of April at A Month in My Life, I had this to say about snapping up the book written by Harvard student Kaavya Viswanathan, in which it is alleged she committed gross plagiarism.

There was a 100,000 copy first printing of her book. As the publisher is going to issue a new edition omitting the questionable passages, and as there is a movie deal in the works, my advice is to try to snatch up one of those 100,000. Maybe one day they will be considered collectors items.

Rounding out this saga over the weekend, author Paul Collins posted two links at his Weekend Stubble blog showing the change in the ebay prices of this book (posted under "The Plagiarism Remainder Table"). One link shows the former "buy now" price in which someone who owned the book must have agreed with me and asked $200 for the book. The second link shows the current going price of a whopping $.99.

Better luck to me next time.