The Book Review Column 1 Books I Need Reviewed for Sigact News Column Algorithms and Combinatorics 1. Integrated Methods for Optimization (second Edition)

Editorial about Book Prices: In the first draft of this column I had the following comment about Beck’s book on Combinatorial Games: The books is expensive and not online. I assume that the author is more interested in getting the material out to people who want to read it rather than in making money. Yet the book has a high price tag and is not online. The entire math-book-publishing business needs to be rethought. The problem is not hypothetical. I mentor many high school and college students on projects. This book has a wealth of ideas for projects; however, I am not going to ask my students to shell out $65.00 for it. Hence I have not had any students work on this material. When I emailed a link of the first draft to all authors-of-books, authors-of-reviews, and publishingcontacts Lauren Cowles of Cambridge Press (Beck’s publisher) responded that (1) I didn’t have prices listed for the other books (true at the time but since corrected), and (2) Beck’s book is not bad in terms of price-per-page. (3) Most books are not online, including the other ones in the column. I interpret her argument as don’t single out Beck’s book since most books are overpriced and not online. I agree with her point entirely. It would be easy for me to blame the industry; however, I do not know what the economics of this industry is. I can however suggest what WE as a community can do: