Is a book man’s best friend? Yes, especially when it costs more than $5 million.
Before e-readers, paper books remained one of humanity’s main sources of information and methods of exchanging knowledge between generations.
Analytics predict that, in several decades, it will not be possible to furnish your reading room with the printed books of many authors. The reason is that many of these books will go out of print and old collections will be mindlessly sold or destroyed.
At the same time, rare books are sold at numerous auctions, purchased for private collections, which are closed off from outsiders, and valued at prices comparable to some of the most expensive works of painted art.
The world’s most expensive book is Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies published in 1623. It has been sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $5 million.
The Codex Leicester by Leonardo da Vinci is even more expensive, but it should not be counted since this notebook, written in mirror writing, has been a long time gem of Bill Gate’s collection. Microsoft’s owner has purchased it for an astonishing $30 million.
As a wise man once said, “Every object that loses in price as popular, gains in price as an antique.” Paper books become extinct and what is rare becomes expensive. Sometimes, in order to invest in the future, one needs to just save what he already has.