Dear Log,
An EU reader of my book who lives in France wrote to me, and we got to talking about availability and pricing of my book in France. He wrote:
[...]In the biggest Paris computer books bookshop (Eyrolles, boulevard Saint-Germain), they're asking for more than 50 euro, which is really expensive; basically they seem to convert from dollars and add about 15 euro. (French law forbids discounts of more than 5% on books.) They have about 10 copies on their shelves. I ordered it from Amazon.com and got it for half that even including the overseas delivery.[...]I wrote back, saying "[...]Something about the idea that "French law forbids discounts of more than 5% on books" strikes me as deeply comical and Ottomanesque. I suspect that dadaism's rise in France was merely the deliberate expression of a folk surrealism that has always been inadvertant and pandemic in French law. Grace à son respet pour le salut publique, le Saint-Pacha nous defend d'écrire les mots avec les K quand la lune est croisssante, etc etc."
