Books in the U.S., I can state categorically after working in the publishing industry for more than 30 years, aren’t worth much. They’re expensive to produce and overhead- and labor-intensive. They’re expensive to print, ship, and mail.

And they’re difficult to sell, competing with 5,000 other books published that week, not to mention fewer and fewer people reading them. The retail price has to stay low, so as not to scare aware potential buyers.

And if you do somehow sell one, it’s at a 20% discount to the wholesaler and a 40% discount to the bookseller (who have 90 days to pay) and, say, a 20% royalty to the author, leaving pennies in margin to the publisher.

The ultimate symbol of the worth of books in the U.S. is how many cost a penny, one single red cent, used on Amazon.

However, books in English in Ecuador, especially about Ecuador, are valuable.  Which is why I brought several dozen of them with me, filling up a duffel bag and half of a big suitcase. I'm slowly reading them and my reviews are below.