Fading flower
Member
- Apr 26, 2022
- 10
Six years ago I bought myself a printed copy of the Peaceful Pill Handbook (straight off the Amazon website). I was quite surprised to find it listed there, no purchase restrictions whatsoever - just click and pay, much like on any other day. It felt exactly the same as ordering any other book on the internet, except for the ridiculous 75,- euro price tag! That is more than the price of ANY new book I have EVER purchased in my whole entire life and I have bought some very fancy/glossy/ arty books in my lifetime. So yes, I know what it is like to spend money on wonderful books full of creative, mesmerizing photography with incredible print quality - the kind of coffee table books you spend hours salivating over, just because you can. The kind of arty books that you almost feel proud and happy to own - books that are well worth every penny you spent on them. The kind of books you wish you could take with you when you finally go, but unfortunately can't .. sigh.
I wish I could say the same for the 75 euro's I spent on my own copy of the Peaceful Pill Handbook back in 2016. I wish I could say I was a truly satisfied customer and that the money it cost to purchase the PPH book was well spent. I don't know why, but I somehow expected ALOT more from this book. Maybe my expectations were too high or unrealistic (story of my life ha,ha) but I really, really wanted this book to deliver .. deliver something really worth having or knowing, somehow justifying the rather hefty price-tag for this information. It feels kind of ironic that the information needed to successfully 'exit' ends up being the most expensive book purchase I ever made!! And not a single glossy page to be found in all the 350 odd pages to justify any of the expense!! Just you standard run-of-the-mill self-published book, with only black and white printed pages from cover to cover (plus bad quality photo's of some vital and very necessary product information).
I keep wondering if a book like this is over-priced because of a strange novelty demand? You would think that the publishers would aim to make it VERY accessible to all kinds of people, financially speaking. Maybe they are just laughing all the way to the bank? Maybe our very desperate NEED has simply become their GREED? I guess we will never know ..
I sometimes wonder if the hefty PPH price-tag is meant to help fund certain Exit-international activities? Certain legal fees? The development of Philip Nitschke's prototype 'death-machine' maybe? Oddly enough, back in 2016 the authors of the PPH weren't even travelling to the countries listed in the book and to the various towns and cities (where substances like Nembutal could be sourced over the counter). I can easily understand if the hefty PPH price-tag is used to fund all kinds of travelling expenses - this would make perfect sense. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case at all. Back in 2016 (when travelling was relatively easy) the majority of PPH 'source' information was simply sent to the authors from various third parties - from the people who actually made the effort to travel vast distances at great expense to source their exit-strategy themselves! Neither of the authors (Philip Nitschke and Fiona Stewart) seemed to be making any of those trips. They just updated the information that they had on record, as and when it came in via OTHER people's efforts.
I have to admit, realising this felt disappointing and rather disheartening. I guess a part of me wanted this book to be the 'real deal' and definitely worth the *ridiculous* asking price .. but I am yet to be convinced. My 2016 printed PPH copy now lives largely at the back of my dusty old bookcase. I keep wondering if I should throw it out before I go? I mean, its not like the cleaning lady is going to pick it up and say 'oh - this looks like a very good read' or the second hand bookshop finds it along with all of my other glossy/arty books and says 'Oh yes, lets put this one on display'. I wonder if a second-hand bookshop even has a section for a TOPIC like this .. I don't think they would ever dare put it on display, do you??? I guess these kinds of books will probably end up in landfill or paper recycling facilities somewhere. And no one seeing this old paperback book would ever guess that it cost me a whopping 75 euros back in 2016!!
I wish I could say the same for the 75 euro's I spent on my own copy of the Peaceful Pill Handbook back in 2016. I wish I could say I was a truly satisfied customer and that the money it cost to purchase the PPH book was well spent. I don't know why, but I somehow expected ALOT more from this book. Maybe my expectations were too high or unrealistic (story of my life ha,ha) but I really, really wanted this book to deliver .. deliver something really worth having or knowing, somehow justifying the rather hefty price-tag for this information. It feels kind of ironic that the information needed to successfully 'exit' ends up being the most expensive book purchase I ever made!! And not a single glossy page to be found in all the 350 odd pages to justify any of the expense!! Just you standard run-of-the-mill self-published book, with only black and white printed pages from cover to cover (plus bad quality photo's of some vital and very necessary product information).
I keep wondering if a book like this is over-priced because of a strange novelty demand? You would think that the publishers would aim to make it VERY accessible to all kinds of people, financially speaking. Maybe they are just laughing all the way to the bank? Maybe our very desperate NEED has simply become their GREED? I guess we will never know ..
I sometimes wonder if the hefty PPH price-tag is meant to help fund certain Exit-international activities? Certain legal fees? The development of Philip Nitschke's prototype 'death-machine' maybe? Oddly enough, back in 2016 the authors of the PPH weren't even travelling to the countries listed in the book and to the various towns and cities (where substances like Nembutal could be sourced over the counter). I can easily understand if the hefty PPH price-tag is used to fund all kinds of travelling expenses - this would make perfect sense. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case at all. Back in 2016 (when travelling was relatively easy) the majority of PPH 'source' information was simply sent to the authors from various third parties - from the people who actually made the effort to travel vast distances at great expense to source their exit-strategy themselves! Neither of the authors (Philip Nitschke and Fiona Stewart) seemed to be making any of those trips. They just updated the information that they had on record, as and when it came in via OTHER people's efforts.
I have to admit, realising this felt disappointing and rather disheartening. I guess a part of me wanted this book to be the 'real deal' and definitely worth the *ridiculous* asking price .. but I am yet to be convinced. My 2016 printed PPH copy now lives largely at the back of my dusty old bookcase. I keep wondering if I should throw it out before I go? I mean, its not like the cleaning lady is going to pick it up and say 'oh - this looks like a very good read' or the second hand bookshop finds it along with all of my other glossy/arty books and says 'Oh yes, lets put this one on display'. I wonder if a second-hand bookshop even has a section for a TOPIC like this .. I don't think they would ever dare put it on display, do you??? I guess these kinds of books will probably end up in landfill or paper recycling facilities somewhere. And no one seeing this old paperback book would ever guess that it cost me a whopping 75 euros back in 2016!!
