Books v. Cigarettes

1946 essay by George Orwell

"Books v. Cigarettes" is an essay published in 1946 by the English author George Orwell. It compares the costs of reading to other forms of recreation including tobacco smoking.

## Background

[edit]

Orwell states that the essay was triggered by the experience of an editor friend who was firewatching during the Second World War. He was told by factory workers that they had no interest in literature because they could not afford books.

The essay first appeared in Tribune on February 8, 1946.

## Argument

[edit]

Orwell questions the idea that buying or reading a book is an expensive hobby. Working out that he had 442 books in his flat and an equivalent number elsewhere, he allocates a range of prices, depending on whether the books were bought new, given, provided for review purposes, borrowed or loaned. Averaging the cost over his lifetime, and adding other incidental reading costs, he estimates his annual expenditure at £25.

In contrast, Orwell works out that before the war he was spending £20 a year on beer and tobacco and that he currently spends £40 per year on tobacco. He works out the national average spent on beer and tobacco to be £40 a year. Noting that it is difficult to establish a relationship between the price of different types of books and the value derived from them, Orwell works out that if books are read simply recreationally, the cost per hour is less than the cost of a cinema seat. Therefore, reading is one of the cheapest recreations.

## Excerpts

[edit]

> And if our book consumption remains as low as it has been, at least let us admit that it is because reading is a less exciting pastime than going to the dogs, the pictures or the pub, and not because books, whether bought or borrowed, are too expensive.

## Reactions

[edit]

Orwell's essays in Tribune, including this, have been described in The Independent as some of the greatest essays in the English language.[1] The question Orwell raised continues to provide a basis for discussion, as in a review of a poll in which one in four Americans read no books at all in 2007[2] and that chief executives claim that they have no time to read literature.[3]

The essay was the subject of an article in Structo magazine which published 'Books v. Cigarettes: 63 years on' in their November 2009 edition.

## See also

[edit]

* Aliteracy
* Bibliography of George Orwell

## References

[edit]

1. ^ The Independent on Sunday Books Sean French on Paul Anderson Orwell in Tribune
2. ^ Kimberly Chou "Replacing guilty pleasures" Michigan Daily September 21, 2008
3. ^ Lucy Kellaway "Why chief executives will never choose to read novels" Irish Times September 29, 2008

## External links

[edit]

* Text of "Books v. Cigarettes"
* Books v. Cigarettes: 63 years on

* v
* t
* e

George Orwell

Bibliography

Novels|

| Fiction|

* Burmese Days (1934)
* A Clergyman's Daughter (1935)
* Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936)
* Coming Up for Air (1939)
* Animal Farm (1945)
* Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

|

Nonfiction|

* Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)
* The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)
* Homage to Catalonia (1938)

Essays|

| 1930s|

* "A Hanging" (1931)
* "The Spike" (1931)
* "Bookshop Memories" (1936)
* "Shooting an Elephant" (1936)
* "Spilling the Spanish Beans" (1937)

|

1940s|

* "Boys' Weeklies" (1940)
* "Inside the Whale" (1940)
* "My Country Right or Left" (1940)
* "The Art of Donald McGill" (1941)
* "England Your England" (1941)
* "The Lion and the Unicorn" (1941)
* "Poetry and the Microphone" (1943)
* "Raffles and Miss Blandish" (1944)
* "Good Bad Books" (1945)
* "Notes on Nationalism" (1945)
* "The Sporting Spirit" (1945)
* "Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool" (1947)
* "The English People" (1947)
* "Toward European Unity" (1947)
* "Reflections on Gandhi" (1949)

| 1946|

* "Books v. Cigarettes" (1946)
* "Confessions of a Book Reviewer" (1946)
* "Decline of the English Murder" (1946)
* "A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray" (1946)
* "How the Poor Die" (1946)
* "The Moon Under Water" (1946)
* "A Nice Cup of Tea" (1946)
* "Pleasure Spots" (1946)
* "Politics and the English Language" (1946)
* "The Politics of Starvation" (1946)
* "Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels" (1946)
* "The Prevention of Literature" (1946)
* "Riding Down from Bangor" (1946)
* "Second Thoughts on James Burnham" (1946)
* "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad" (1946)
* "Why I Write" (1946)

|

1950s|

* "Such, Such Were the Joys" (1952)

Collections|

* "As I Please" (1943–1947)
* "London Letters" (1941–1946)
* Betrayal of the Left (1941)
* Inside the Whale and Other Essays (1940)
* Critical Essays (1946)

Related|

* Orwellian
* Searchlight Books
* Secker and Warburg
* Victor Gollancz Ltd
* Eileen O'Shaughnessy
* Sonia Orwell
* Orwell's list (1949)
* Eric & Us
* Why Orwell Matters
* Orwell Award
* Orwell Prize
* The Orwell Foundation
* Statue

Portal
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template