Do you have the cash for this tome?

Billed as the world's most expensive book, a rare copy of John James Audubon's Birds of America is scheduled to go on sale at Sotheby's this December, according to a BBC News report. Only 119 copies exist of the 19-century book, which contains 1,000 life-sized illustrations of almost 500 breeds of birds, and most copies are owned by museums and libraries. A separate edition of this book sold for a record-breaking price of $8.8 million a decade ago. (from the International Reading Association website)

On an unrelated note: Today's Literary Lunches reader is retired Grand Forks Central English teacher Carol Dahlstrom.