Bring back paperbacks!

[Green_Bean]

A related thread: Is there a name for this paperback format? - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board

And my post from that thread:

@Green_Bean

Well, what about formats like the new Carl Hiaasen paperback?

I was waiting for it to come out in paperback–and I went to the local independent bookstore to buy it. I was shocked when I saw it. It was larger than a mass-market paperback, but about the same quality–but it was 14 bucks!

Now, I don’t mind paying more for a decent trade paperback, especially if it’s a title I’m planning to keep. “Trade paperback” usually means that the paper quality and binding and typesetting will be better. I expect it to last a while. But this thing was printed on the same pulpy junk that the typical mass-market paperback is!

As far as I’m concerned, 7 or 8 bucks is even too high of a price for a mass-market paperback, so I get most of my junky reading material used. But I pay that for something like a Carl Hiaasen book, because I know I’ll enjoy the hell out of it, probably read it a couple of times, and then give it away so someone else can enjoy it too. But $14 was just too much.

I felt like a bit of an ass, but I told the bookstore owner the truth–that I just wasn’t willing to spend $14 on something of that quality, so I was going to just take it out of the library. I asked if regular mass-market paperbacks were available to order, and she told me no. She also told me that these more expensive versions were becoming more common, and that it was really bad for her business because people didn’t want to buy them. And that she was sympathetic to the feelings of the consumer–she wouldn’t want to spend $14 on that either!