The characters in my current campaign are all bookworms. They frequent the libraries and book stores, search through any bookshelf they can find for further knowledge on what they seek. Sometimes it's a bit daunting, since a simple search for books in the Golarion setting usually ends up bringing me to Pathfinder RPG books.
What I would like to know is, how much do books tend to cost in game and is there anyplace that I could find a list of books that exist within the world of Golarion, from common every day books to hard to find tomes. They can detail stories, or ecology, or history, or just about anything.
Usually, I'll make up a book title on the spot and tell the players what they learn after x amount of time reading, but I don't always know how much information can be found at a bookstore.
Books are very expensive items until the invention of the printing press as they are all individually hand written. And artwork on the margins, illuminations as they were called were considered an essential item to make a book readable.
One other fun fact about reading in the middle ages. Reading silently was generally not a known art. Books were typically placed on a lectern (those things you smash up in Diablo) and read aloud standing up.
On Golarion, the generally more widespread literacy means they're probably more expensive than modern paperbacks, but not as pricey as a genuine medieval book would have been.
I think the binding counts for a lot...
I don't know if this will help much, but it's a start link
And apparently a printing press exists already. Who knew.
I don't know if this will help much, but it's a start link
And apparently a printing press exists already. Who knew.
Quite helpful indeed as far as pricing goes. I think so far my estimations haven't been too far off.
As the automaton notes, we try to note prices when the sources provide them on the 'list of works' page he linked. That is also a good page to print to have book titles and authors on hand when needed. There are a couple more from the new novel Bloodbound (somewhere in chapters 10-13, I'm listening to the audio version so not sure exactly where) that we need to add once I get the book from my subscription.