"In the FTSE, The Great Gatsby was up two pounds forty eight a page today..."

A London bookseller is trying to create a sort of market index for rare books:

The most expensive title on the list was F.Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsbywhich is valued at £246,636 in 2015. Its worth has increased over 13 times since 1996 when it was priced at £18,056.

The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien was he next most valuable book in the index at £65,420, double the price of two years ago.

However, while these prices are encouraging for rare book collectors and investors, these two books are extreme examples. In fact, they may even be taken out of the final version of the index, which will be launched on November 26, to avoid the results being skewed.

Keith Heddle, managing director of Stanley Gibbons, said that he wanted the index to give a snapshot of the market which was why they wanted it to be more conservative.

Book	Value in 2015	Total increase since 1996
George Orwell - Animal Farm	£5,124	2597%
Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead	£8,540	1729%
Ian Fleming - Live and Let Die	£8,060	1579%
George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-Four	£8,060	1450%
Ian Fleming - Casino Royale	£24,180	874%
Robert Graves - Good-Bye to All That	£3,750	859%
J.M.Keynes - The General Theory of Employment	£6,820	847%
T.S.Eliot - The Waste Land	£5,624	687%
Evelyn Waugh - Decline and Fall	£9,364	555%
John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath	£6,133	527% The price of alternative assets, such as art, classic cars and wine, have soared in recent years, partly because investors, unable to earn decent income from traditional sources, have turned elsewhere to make speculative bets.

Some alternative assets can also grow without attracting capital gains tax liabilities.

The rush to invest, however, has arguably created speculative bubbles in the prices of some assets.

Mr Heddle says books are worthwhile investments with prices less volatile than some other assets, such as fine wine, where investors have piled in.

Pom Harrington, owner of the specialist book collecting firm Peter Harrington, says the index is not broad enough to give an accurate representation of the market. There can be a huge variation in price dependent on condition which could see The Great Gatsby valued at £40,000 to £50,000 or over £200,000.