"I am currently putting together a compendium that describes every encyclopedia published through history ... an encyclopedia of encyclopedias, if you will."

"This has been done before, hundreds of times, in fact."

"Then I shall summarize each such effort and assemble an encyclopedia of encyclopedias of encyclopedias."

"A woman in Toronto already published such a thing, but it didn't sell."

"The title was wrong, then, or the book jacket was possibly uninviting."

"I think it was called 'The Everything of Something' or 'The Something of Everything.' You may have a point."

"The market, as I see it, consists of precocious teenagers and nursing-home patients."

"Let's add disgruntled academics."

"And the institutionalized. What sticker price should we aim for? Before you say it, I am talking about a real book, not a database of facts accessible for an online subscription fee."

"Although the latter idea is worth considering, from a purely economic point of view."

"No!"

"Very well. I am thinking eighty-five dollars, with royalties of two dollars and fifty cents accruing to the author or editor, depending on how you plan to style yourself."

"This is highway robbery."

"No one is forcing the consumer to pay eighty-five dollars. We are merely presenting him or her with a spending option that previously did not exist."

"The consumer be damned! It's me who's being robbed."