"If you are desperate to get my books and your library can't afford them, try to type the words "library genesis" in a search engine. I disagree with piracy, but this site saved me many trips to the library, which unfortunately does not carry electronic versions of older books."
It’s not that surprising to me. For academic publications, it’s generally only the publisher who makes a significant profit — and even then it’s probably negligible in most cases.
I’ve even been personally sent PDFs of books by the author under the condition that I don’t tell anyone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Talagrand
A surprising tip from his personal page.
"If you are desperate to get my books and your library can't afford them, try to type the words "library genesis" in a search engine. I disagree with piracy, but this site saved me many trips to the library, which unfortunately does not carry electronic versions of older books."
http://michel.talagrand.net/