Rare Orthodox Books

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Why are out-of-print Orthodox books so expensive? It isn't uncommon for books to go for several hundred dollars. This is especially true of books from St. Herman Press but it isn't by any means confined to that publishing house. Fr. Seraphim Rose: His Live and Works should be available in every church bookstore because it is such a moving story, but you can only find it used online for $200 or more.
 
Yeah, it's a shame that book is so hard to come by and is so expensive. I was lucky to find a beat up used copy in my local Orthodox bookstore but it still cost me $100. Genesis, Creation, and Early Man is another one that is ridiculously expensive and also goes for several hundreds online.

One book that was out of print until recently is The Ascetic of Love by Nun (Saint) Gavrilia. It's a wonderful book with her life, teachings, and sayings, and she was recently canonized a saint by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
 
The Orthodox publishers probably print radically too few copies of any given book, and therein lies the problem. Perhaps they feel that the target market is too small and not worth the cost. Personally, I have found some copies of Orthodox books in other languages, since they were not available or just unaffordable in English.
 
Its a shame that people drive the prices up so much on the second hand market. No book is worth triple figures. Taking advantage of the scarcity to make a massive profit is shameful, especially considering it is Orthodox literature.

Having said that, why aren't publishers seeing the demand and reprinting these books?
 
St. Herman Press told me when I inquired that they were planning to reprint Fr. Seraphim's life and his Genesis book. Not sure why it's taking so long though... makes me want to get an amateur printing press going for rare books only found in pdf form these days.
 
I previously posted this link in the Fr. Seraphim Rose thread, but given that a lot of the rare books that people are interested in are by or about Rose, I'll repost here.

These are links to free PDFs of various out of print books.

Genesis, Creation and Early Man (and a number of other works) can be downloaded here:


Not of This World (the first edition of the biography of Rose) can be downloaded here:


Fr. Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works (second edition of the biography) can be downloaded here:


Pretty much all of the works by or about Rose can be found for free as PDFs or epub if you search them out. The guy who runs the Fr. Seraphim Rose Tribute channel on Telegram (https://t.me/FrSeraphimRose) will also occasionally post a file or link to a rare work. For instance, he recently posted the file for The Little Russian Philokalia, vol. 5, which Rose translated and wrote the introduction to. I wasn't even aware of its existence, let alone how hard it was to find, until he posted that file.

(The existence of these files obviously does create negative pressure on the publisher to re-print the work, so I understand if people think posting this is problematic. On the other hand, many people will still want to purchase nice editions if and when they are ever rereleased.)
 

Library Genesis is a good source for electronic books too. And they usually have epub or mobi files which are better for e-readers than PDFs.

There are some moral issues with downloading copyrighted books. But the 70-year postmortem limit on copyrights is arbitrary, so if the author is no longer alive, I wouldn't feel too bad doing it.
 
analyst_green said:

Library Genesis is a good source for electronic books too. And they usually have epub or mobi files which are better for e-readers than PDFs.

There are some moral issues with downloading copyrighted books. But the 70-year postmortem limit on copyrights is arbitrary, so if the author is no longer alive, I wouldn't feel too bad doing it.
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Likewise, if an Orthodox book is no longer in print, unaffordable or not found on the aftermarket, yet there is a free digital version out there, I question how "immoral" it is to download it. If no other means are available, does the spreading of the Christian faith not trump copyright laws? I don't have an answer, but I think the question is a valid one.
 
Christos_NIKA said:
Likewise, if an Orthodox book is no longer in print, unaffordable or not found on the aftermarket, yet there is a free digital version out there, I question how "immoral" it is to download it. If no other means are available, does the spreading of the Christian faith not trump copyright laws? I don't have an answer, but I think the question is a valid one.
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I have zero concerns about downloading Orthodox books, just ask yourself if the author would be okay with you breaking copyright law in order to be able to access their writing... I highly doubt they would have any issue with it. Of course it's better to support the author and publisher financially when possible but I don't think you'll be starving anyone by not doing so.
 
A few Orthodox audiobooks are now available on Spotify premium in case you guys have that. Including Nihilism by Fr. Seraphim and Confessions by St. Augustine. Also The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis which, although not Orthodox, is held in high regard in the Orthosphere
 
There was a discussion on Rare Orthodox Books on Youtube just today. I didn't listen through all the way through, but in the portion I listened to, they do discuss the Seraphim Rose biography and possible plans by St. Herman of Alaska Press for reprints of various books.

 
analyst_green said:
A few Orthodox audiobooks are now available on Spotify premium in case you guys have that. Including Nihilism by Fr. Seraphim and Confessions by St. Augustine. Also The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis which, although not Orthodox, is held in high regard in the Orthosphere
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Sometimes you can find an audio version of Orthodox (and other) books on YT or Bitchute, etc. where someone is just reading the book, chapter by chapter. Here is one, for example:



Perhaps a person who loves to read, has a lot of time on their hands, and would like to create their own YT (or other) channel, can start a collection of such Orthodox books that he/she reads and stores. I don't know copyright law, but I assume that if you are reading it yourself and uploading the audio, there should be no issue, right? 🤷🏼‍♂️
 
Christos_NIKA said:
Sometimes you can find an audio version of Orthodox (and other) books on YT or Bitchute, etc. where someone is just reading the book, chapter by chapter. Here is one, for example:



Perhaps a person who loves to read, has a lot of time on their hands, and would like to create their own YT (or other) channel, can start a collection of such Orthodox books that he/she reads and stores. I don't know copyright law, but I assume that if you are reading it yourself and uploading the audio, there should be no issue, right? 🤷🏼‍♂️
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Copyright law is pretty comprehensive because it covers the intellectual property, not the physical. What you're suggesting is essentially creating an audiobook, which is legally treated similar to a printed book.

You can't even translate a book into Chinese and distribute without permission. Even if you record and upload the book to YT as a series of beeps or flashes giving every word in Morse code, that would still probably be illegal.
 
Christos_NIKA said:
Likewise, if an Orthodox book is no longer in print, unaffordable or not found on the aftermarket, yet there is a free digital version out there, I question how "immoral" it is to download it. If no other means are available, does the spreading of the Christian faith not trump copyright laws? I don't have an answer, but I think the question is a valid one.
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I don't think there is a huge issue with books that are unavailable. If it's a book that you could buy but don't want to then it's different. If you cannot go anywhere to get it and its free somewhere then there is no issue in my view
 
analyst_green said:
What you're suggesting is essentially creating an audiobook, which is legally treated similar to a printed book.
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So, in essence, YT...one of the most prolific anti-free-speech outlets out there, is letting people upload their own recitations of books? Seems to be a grey area. Not being combative here, just discussing.
 
Christos_NIKA said:
So, in essence, YT...one of the most prolific anti-free-speech outlets out there, is letting people upload their own recitations of books? Seems to be a grey area. Not being combative here, just discussing.
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I don't think they really care until the copyright owner sends them a takedown notice, which they must comply with or else risk of prosecution.
 
Christos_NIKA said:
So, in essence, YT...one of the most prolific anti-free-speech outlets out there, is letting people upload their own recitations of books? Seems to be a grey area. Not being combative here, just discussing.
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Books of a certain age I believe are public domain, although (I think) certain translations may not be.

Also probably small publishers/authors such as those behind a lot of Orthodox books, probably aren't going mad over copyright violations like record labels and such do. Also you can automate recognition of someone taking a song or clips from a movie, but its much more difficult with them reading a book (unless its a specific recording)
 
Posting a link to a Telegram channel simply called "Library" that has posted a ton of Orthodox books. There is everything ranging from ancient Patristic texts, to the works of modern Athonite Elders, to academic works on Orthodoxy.

The channel seems to be dormant now, but the person who ran it posted books there over a two year period, and there are many good items worth checking out.

 
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