Something I don't understand:

Why don't you buy used books?

Plenty of supply for a book like the one he mentions, Knut Hamsun's "Growth of the Soil." No question that it was made to the quality level of the time when it was published; early 2000's is probably peak.

I understand some books are so new they won't have any used copies. But for everything else, there's an endless buffet to choose from.