Tobacco, alcohol and books

Yesterday's post made me think about the numbers implied behind Henry Ward Beecher's statement that "a man may every year add a hundred volumes to his library for the price which his tobacco and his beer would cost him." Whether or not it was true then I cannot say, though it probably was in the ball park. Is it true today? I know that the average household in the US only spends about $40 on books per year, an incomprensibly small number to enthusiastic readers. But how much could they be spending were they to forego tobacco and drink?

Courtesy of Visual Economics, who have taken the annual income and expenditure information collected by the Department of Labor, and have created an expenditure map, we can do a quick and dirty estimate of the current accuracy of Beecher's comment.



The first thing to note is that Visual Economics have added together the expenditure on books with the average household expenditure on newspapers and magazines for a Reading category of expenditures of $118 (0.2% of average household expenditures). Regrettably average annual household expenditures on smoking are $323 (0.7%) and for alcohol $457 (0.9%). I am somewhat surprised that these numbers are as low as they are but they still represent homes spending nearly seven times as much on smoking and drinking as they do on reading.

More pertinently to the question posed, $780 ($323 plus $457) would buy you about 35 brand new hardback books (using a rough average of $22) or 65 brand new paperbacks (using a rough average of $12) (Source: School Library Journal). If you purchased only mass market paperbacks, you would be able to buy about 95 books a year with $780; strikingly close to Beecher's number from more than a century ago.

So, at the lower end of the market, Beecher's comment is still relevant. For more permanent collections (hardback books) it is less true today than then. However, not all books need be purchased new. Used book stores, library sales, etc. afford good prices for good books. The typical used book store usually sells books at roughly 50-60%. Using the 50% number, you are looking at annually being able to buy 70-130 books (representing a range of hardbacks to paperbacks) for the amount that the average household spends on tobacco and alcohol. Interestingly, the midpoint of that number, 100 books, is precisely in line with Beecher's observation.