I like to think I’m not a materialist, but I do have a propensity to buy too many books. This year I’ve been working on buying fewer and reading more. I’ll get through that TBR list some day…or some year. Now, I buy e-books and audio books, but I do have a soft spot in my heart for a real, physical book.
The Cheapening
I grew up in the 80s and 90s, before e-books, when the paperback was truly at the height of its power. In fact, I tended to prefer paperbacks over hardbacks, with their finicky dust covers and heavy bindings.
Paperbacks are a great, cheap form factor. If all you care about is getting those sweet, sweet story-words into your eye-holes, paperbacks are a great option. They are just not a high-quality option. These days, trade paperbacks don’t seem to be much better than mass market paperbacks either. I find that many comic collections and graphic novels are ready to come apart at the binding with minimal provocation.
In general, I think the last four or five decades of physical publishing have been all about trying to shave pennies off the print cost. E-books and print-on-demand upended the publishing game, and the industry feels like it never quite got its feet back under it.
Books as Artifact
There is something to be said for books as a physical artifact. There is a satisfaction to a full bookshelf that simply can’t be replicated by an app or e-reader. Even though I don’t like the experience of holding and reading a hardcover book as much as a light paperback (that I can force into a pocket if need be), I love the look of a shelf full of embossed leatherbound books.
In the drive for cost cutting, the industry has spent less and less effort on the physical beauty of books. It’s not unreasonable, but it is unfortunate. I would love to see publishers experimenting with more ways to differentiate the look of books on the shelf, even if I admittedly don’t want to spend $50 or $100 on some ultra-fancy collector’s edition.
Browsing the bookstore recently, I saw one indicator that someone is thinking along those lines. Many of the books in the special front-of-store featured sections now have sprayed edges.
These special editions tend to be the best-sellers or the big-buck new releases that the publishing oracles have selected for special treatment, but hey, that’s nothing new. Publishers have always consulted the oracles and picked certain books for special treatment.
I’m sure something in the printing tech has changed recently to make this cheaper and more accessible, because there are a ton of these now. And while some people clearly find it off-putting, I personally like it.
Let’s find more reasons to get excited about books! Let’s make them look cool and different. Let’s enjoy them as beautiful artifacts on the shelf, instead of merely that guilty pleasure that I indulge a little too often. Heck, as long as we’re at it, I want to see more embossing and fake gold leaf and variant covers.
What do you think? Do you like fancy books? Are you interested in books as artifacts, or are you all about jamming the story-words in the eye-holes with a complete disregard for their containment vessel? Let me know in the comments.
Words Deferred 