"When it comes to mine, take it in blood"

When you don't feel like driving your Benz to the opera, and don't feel like watching the latest film releases in your private screening room, what are you, the filthy-rich cricket fan to do? Why not turn the pages of a book that costs more than most people make in a year?

From The Wall Street Journal:

For $75,000, you can buy a piece of Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar.

Luxury publisher Kraken Opus mixed in a pint of Mr. Tendulkar's blood with paper pulp to create the signature page for a book celebrating the renowned batsman's career. The 10 limited-edition copies, which comes out in February, cost $75,000 each and have already sold out.

At a time when newspapers, magazines, and book publishers are facing the inevitable decline of their industry, high-end publishing seems to be a growing niche. While the aforementioned paper-dependent products are being rapidly overtaken by the instantaneous, digital dazzle of internet-based entertainment, luxury books appear to be, for the moment, "e-proof".

"No one says, 'I want to download the e-edition of this book,' " says book analyst Michael Norris of research firm Simba Information. "If it's a physical object that's beautifully done, people see the value."