# are CliffsNotes still a thing? still sold in every bookstore?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 22, 2017, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868 "2017-07-22T05:52:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Win\_Place\_Show](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Win_Place_Show)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2017, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/1 "2017-07-22T05:52:10Z")
I’m guessing anyone in their 40’s or 50’s relied on these things heavily in school to get through that _Romeo and Juliet_ book report that they didn’t read. (Don’t ask me how I know).
Just wondering with this recent invention of something the kids call the internet, whether or not Cliff (or his heirs) are under some freeway overpass panhandling for coins these days.
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### Author:  [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2017, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/2 "2017-07-22T06:18:15Z")
They’re still available online, and they’re free.
> **[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Character List | Study Guide | CliffsNotes](https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn/character-list)**
>
> Use CliffsNotes' The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Study Guide today to ace your next test! Get free homework help on Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: book summary, chapter summary and analysis and original text, quotes, essays, and...
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2017, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/3 "2017-07-22T14:16:51Z")
Bookstore?
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### Author:  [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/4 "2017-07-22T15:16:26Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#):
>
> Bookstore?
exactly
not usually “a thing” anymore ☹
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### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2017, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/5 "2017-07-23T04:37:33Z")
> [@Win\_Place\_Show](#):
>
> sold in every bookstore
Why bookstores? That was bad marketing, even back then. To make sales, you go where your customers are.
Kids who buy Cliffnotes don’t buy books, and don’t ask their parents to take them to the bookstore.
I remember CliffNotes at _drug stores._
They were on rotating racks (like greeting cards), next to the magazines and comics.
You could ride your bike to the drug store at 6p.m on Sunday evening, when all the other stores were closed , and get the CliffNotes in time for Monday morning’s test. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/6 "2017-07-23T17:25:20Z")
Remember those cool hard-plastic one-sheet note-cards? All sorts of subjects! I had bunches of 'em.
I never actually bought or used Cliffs Notes, but I have gone for the occasional Classics Illustrated.
Nifty that Cliffs are online, and niftier that they’re free. Does this mean they’re no longer being produced?
(I also miss Thomas Brothers street maps. I still have the last printed copy of my county in my car.)
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### Author:  [@igor\_frankensteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/igor_frankensteen)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2017, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/7 "2017-07-23T17:29:30Z")
Classics Illustrated were always much more fun anyway.
Me, I always actually read the books. Didn’t understand most of what the teachers wanted me to read them for though.
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### Author:  [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2017, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/8 "2017-07-23T18:47:27Z")
There’s also watching the movie version, but you have to be careful. I remember an 8th-grade classmate giving an oral report on _Pygmalion_ but it was obvious that she’d seen and was describing scenes from _My Fair Lady_ not in Shaw’s play.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2017, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/9 "2017-07-23T19:02:33Z")
I was in school in the 1960s and 1970s and while remember seeing them in the store, I never used them, and I did not know anyone who did. Never bought one, and I did not know anyone who did or at least admitted to it. They just weren’t popular among the students in my West Texas town. I do remember seeing them for sale in the bookstores, and I think I looked through a couple, but I remember thinking just reading the damned book would take about as much effort as reading the Cliffs Notes.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2017, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/10 "2017-07-23T20:30:35Z")
> [@Miss\_Mapp](#):
>
> There’s also watching the movie version, but you have to be careful. I remember an 8th-grade classmate giving an oral report on _Pygmalion_ but it was obvious that she’d seen and was describing scenes from _My Fair Lady_ not in Shaw’s play.
I did that when I was supposed to read Tess of the d’Urbervilles. I could not get through that novel so instead I watched the movie version starring Nastassja Kinski (and this was back in the VHS days).
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### Author:  [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/11 "2017-07-23T21:08:24Z")
> [@Miss\_Mapp](#):
>
> There’s also watching the movie version, but you have to be careful. I remember an 8th-grade classmate giving an oral report on _Pygmalion_ but it was obvious that she’d seen and was describing scenes from _My Fair Lady_ not in Shaw’s play.
Years ago, I had a student who talked confidently in class about how Beowulf was seduced by Grendel’s mother :smack:
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### Author:  [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2017, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/12 "2017-07-23T21:52:44Z")
I know a guy who made it through a Ph.D. in English Lit using Coles Notes (similar to Cliffs).
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### Author:  [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2017, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/13 "2017-07-24T01:54:47Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> I was in school in the 1960s and 1970s and while remember seeing them in the store, I never used them, and I did not know anyone who did. Never bought one, and I did not know anyone who did or at least admitted to it. They just weren’t popular among the students in my West Texas town. I do remember seeing them for sale in the bookstores, and I think I looked through a couple, but I remember thinking just reading the damned book would take about as much effort as reading the Cliffs Notes.
I knew a few kids who tried to use them as a substitute, but found them useless unless you’d read the book as well.
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2017, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/14 "2017-07-24T06:44:05Z")
> [@Miss\_Mapp](#):
>
> There’s also watching the movie version, but you have to be careful. I remember an 8th-grade classmate giving an oral report on _Pygmalion_ but it was obvious that she’d seen and was describing scenes from _My Fair Lady_ not in Shaw’s play.
I remember, way back when I was working at my college newspaper, being assigned to do a phone interview with Jim Carroll, author of _The Basketball Diaries_, who was scheduled to come to campus in order to do a reading. I hadn’t actually read the book, so I watched the movie instead and asked him how it differed from the book. I thought my article turned out fairly well.
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### Author:  [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2017, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/15 "2017-07-24T06:50:17Z")
> [@chappachula](#):
>
> Why bookstores? That was bad marketing, even back then. To make sales, you go where your customers are.
> Kids who buy Cliffnotes don’t buy books, and don’t ask their parents to take them to the bookstore.
>
> I remember CliffNotes at _drug stores._
> They were on rotating racks (like greeting cards), next to the magazines and comics.
> You could ride your bike to the drug store at 6p.m on Sunday evening, when all the other stores were closed , and get the CliffNotes in time for Monday morning’s test. 🙂
Me too, Memories…
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### Author:  [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2017, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/16 "2017-07-24T07:01:08Z")
> [@chappachula](#):
>
> Why bookstores? That was bad marketing, even back then. To make sales, you go where your customers are.
> Kids who buy Cliffnotes don’t buy books, and don’t ask their parents to take them to the bookstore.
> …
I disagree. I recall using them in college. I love to read but, like any reader, I love to read what interests me, not necessarily what some English lit professor wants me to read.
I recall them being for sale in the college bookstore, which makes sense from a marketing viewpoint but it does seem odd that the college would allow it.
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### Author:  [@anomalous1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anomalous1)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2017, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/17 "2017-07-24T07:43:49Z")
They sold them at my school too, I suppose they are akin to calculators in the same respect if one was concerned with cheating. This being said, I did use them heavily in High School, and I loved to read even then, but not the crap prescribed to me (some Tolstoy too). Sorry for anyone here who likes it, but I cannot stand Leo Tolstoy stuff, so damned boring, always a meaningless junk plot then a sudden “tragedy”. “The Overcoat” 'nuff said, I was so thankful for cliffsnotes.
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### Author:  [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2017, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/18 "2017-07-24T14:12:31Z")
> [@davidm](#):
>
> I disagree. I recall using them in college. I love to read but, like any reader, I love to read what interests me, not necessarily what some English lit professor wants me to read.
>
> I recall them being for sale in the college bookstore, which makes sense from a marketing viewpoint but it does seem odd that the college would allow it.
The bookstore doesn’t care what the Cliffnotes are used for as long as they are paid for. From the colleges’ perspective, the Cliffnotes are supposedly used in conjunction with actually reading the book. For the not-particularly-good with literature (think borderline autistic engineering majors) and foreign students not familiar with American culture, this can be the case. Some university libraries have Cliffnotes in their collections (or frequently on reserve because of high demand) with this idea in mind.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2017, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/19 "2017-07-24T14:38:31Z")
My HS teachers would nail the Cliffers by finding details in the novels that the guides didn’t mention…
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### Author:  [@Kadmos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kadmos1)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2017, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cliffsnotes-still-a-thing-still-sold-in-every-bookstore/791868/20 "2017-07-24T15:07:59Z")
These are best used as a guide after you might read a book (for academic purposes) or for those that want a basic summary (casual) of the story.
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