Do you prefer hardcovers, trade paperbacks (the bigger ones), or mass market paperbacks (the smaller ones)? Why?I definitely prefer trade paperbacks; lighter and more portable than hardcovers and prettier (generally) than mass markets, they fit in my purse and they look nice on my shelves. When I finally got around to reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I paid the extra few bucks for the good-looking trade even though the mass market was cheaper and sitting right next to it in the store (and took a little ribbing from none other than Margaret Atwood for doing so). And paperbacks are less precious than hardcovers; I can bend back the covers, set my drinks on them and break the spines. Having said that, I do buy hardcovers occasionally (and I don't always use my books as coasters), when I'm really excited to get a particular book or when I want to collect it in a first edition. I am very disappointed, for example, that The Finkler Question was not released in hardcover in the US, because I think a Booker Prize winner deserves a hardcover release. But I got one from England so all is not lost for this inveterate collector!
More Musing Mondays with Miz B at ShouldBeReading.wordpress.com.
16 comments:
Trade size softcovers are my preference as well, for the exact reasons you mentioned. For some reason regular old paperbacks are only useful for the beach and on vacations where I leave them behind for someone else when I'm done...LOl
I love the paper-over-board format that's popular in Russia: the books are lightweight like paperbacks but durable like hardcovers. I like taking notes inside the back cover; that's easier with a hardcover. I'd take a trade paperback over a regular hardcover, though, because large hardcovers are often unwieldy to hold.
I also like trade paperbacks for fiction. The print in regular paperbacks is so small! And the trades are easy enough to carry. For nonfiction, however, I usually like hardback. They tend to have maps to consult or pictures, and it's easier to do and easier to preserve in a nice way with hardback.
My favorites are the trade paperbacks as well. There is something cheap looking to me about a mass market paperback, and hardcovers are sometimes unwieldy. Most of my books are trade paperbacks, and I think that the only time I buy a hardcover is for collecting purposes.
I love a hardcover but my favourite is definitely the Kindle now. I do not enjoy tiny books with tiny writing.
I love trade paper backs too, but I also like the style with a flap, but it's still softcover? I especially love a nice softcover with the deckle edging -- that is just the right amount of luxury for me!
Shamefully (?) I've become an e-book convert having 'lugged' a 700 pager on my Reader with no effort!
For first edition collecting, the hard cover is my choice, as opposed to the first edition paperback. In paperback format I like trade size for the same reasons you do.
For me, it's a toss up between hardback and trade paperback. I don't like mass market at all and refuse to buy them.
I like paperbacks, too, for the same reasons you mentioned.
I agree with you. I prefer trade paperbacks for the same reasons that you do.
Another vote for trade paperbacks! I like that they're lighter than hardcovers but look nicer and have easier-to-read text than the mass markets. I've yet to meet a mass market that seems particularly well bound. If I'm going to buy a book, I want it to last, but I don't want my wrists to go numb from holding it up. So...trade paperbacks are perfect!
Hardcovers are too difficult to carry easily and mass markets just aren't fun to read. I prefer trade paperbacks as well.
Trade paperbacks are my preference in most cases; but if I am delighted with a book and know it's one I will keep and read again and again, I will upgrade to a hardcover - have to build the 'forever in the family' library, you know?
I prefer hardcovers. I just like the feel and size of them. If I buy a book for my collection, it is only in hardcover. My second choice would be a trade paper. I really don't like Mass Markets. They fall apart and are hard to hold.
-Amy
Life by Candlelight
I find hardcovers too heavy for anything over a couple hundred pages, not just for carrying around and reading on the T but even just for holding in my lap or reading at a desk, especially when you're at the very start or very end. Similar story with smaller paperbacks, so I guess trade paper is a go-to format. For me the attraction of e-readers is not to carry hundreds of books at once, but just to reduce the weight of one big one at a time.
I only get hard covers only if the book is a favorite author and I can't wait for the trade. Trade is usually 6 months later. But, now that I have a e-reader I love the compactivity of it. But there are draw backs that come with this venue. But before the ereader I liked trade backs over anything else. Good question, Marie
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