Right below the top 15 nonfiction bestsellers for several weeks has been the hefty, deluxe two-volume slipcased The Complete Far Side, priced at $135. Andrews McMeel's bestseller includes every Far Side syndicated cartoon by Gary Larson, original essays, sidebars, fan mail and a foreword by Steve Martin. The publisher reports that there are no more copies of its 150,000-copy print run in the warehouse; another printing is being considered for fall of 2004. For some books, price is no object.

With reporting by Dick Donahue