1- Stands up better to re-reading.
2- The appearance factor; it just looks nicer.
3- Can’t wait for the paperback.
But for cases 1 and 2, it seems that most people are buying cheaper versions, either online or used. Who is buying the high-priced versions off the bookstore shelves? And how do we explain the existence of “trashy” novels (the quick-read, non-literature stuff) in hardcover? Do people actually reread those and keep them to pass on to the grandkids?
I buy new release books in hardcover from the local bookstore. I shudder at the price every time, but as I only buy books that I simply cannot wait longer for, I deal with it. I find the hardcover books withstand repeated readings better than paperbacks - my copies of Thief of Time and Nightwatch still look like new.
Besides, I think $20 for a paperback book is outrageous! Paperbacks and hardcovers are equally overpriced these days. At least the hardcover version is likely to last longer and more importantly, is available earlier.
roxx22: Most books in the US (novels, at least) go through a hardcover printing first. There are of course a lot of exceptions. Comic anthologies rarely see a hardcover printing.
The books on my shelf (other than comics) that I’ve never seen in hardcover:
Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates (in fact, never seen a Tom Robbins novel in hardcover)
Downsize This! (I must hold the military record for most Michael Moore stuff owned)
The Real Frank Zappa Book
Can we get someone in the publishing biz who can tell us about what gets hardcover and what doesn’t? Also, I’ve heard that outside the US it’s more usual for something to come out in softcover first and, if it does well enough, do a hardcover printing.
I sometimes buy nice old hardcovers second hand, but never new. This is partially because I’m cheap, but more importatly it’s because I loathe and despise modern hardcover books. They’re incredibly bulky and unpleasant to read. (Don’t get me started on trade paperbacks. I want to hunt down and bitchslap the idiot who thought of those). So I buy a lot of paperbacks. Properly treated they hold together fine, and I don’t think they look trashy at all.
The one exception to this is textbooks. A lot of my textbooks are hardcover. Both because they often don’t come in paperbacks and, for all their faults, textbook publishers haven’t fallen into the “Hmm. It’s hardcover, so we’re charging more, so clearly we must make the book the size of a small blue whale in order to make the readers feel we are giving them value for their money” trap. (Instead they do “Ha. We’re going to charge you 3 times the books worth, * regardless * of what the cover is like, and there’s nothing you can do about it, because you need the book. You’re our bitch. Go on, say it: What are you?”, but that’s a different rant).
Depending on the author and book, I’ll sometimes buy new hardcover. I also get the dustjackets put in plastic slipcovers, because they are so very fragile. I have a list of favorite authors, and I try to support those authors by buying their new hardcover books, when available. I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, so many books are only available in paperback.
I dislike the trade paperback, even though the SD books are all published in trade paperback except for the first one (and possibly the second, but I can’t find my copy). I think that a trade paperback combines the worst features of hardback and softback, with none of the good qualities. It’s unwieldy, and yet it doesn’t hold up well to repeated re-readings. The ONLY reason such things exist is to charge an oversized fee to go with the oversized paperback.
I think that most paperbacks do tend to look tatty after being used regularly. They’re just not as sturdy as hardbacks. I do love the convenient size of paperbacks, though, so I continue to buy them.
I’m not much for reading, so it often depends on the book and where I buy it. There are a lot of Half Priced Bookstores here that are really nice, and if it’s an author I like, I’m willing to spring for a good hardback. And although they’re expensive as shit, if there’s a photographer I like, I’d much rather get the book in hardback than paperpack. Somehow, it just seems wrong for such great art work to be put in such a flimsy, easily ruined binding, you know?
I buy them second-hand, because I’d rather pay $10 for a used hardcover than for a new trade paperback. And I’ll buy certain authors in hardcover in first release, when they’re 40% and under $20.
Above it all, I prefer them because they’re easier to read and they look better in a bookshelf.
I usually end up scouring the used bookstores in my neighborhood for things to read, and I can often find a hardcover book in great, almost new condition, for somewhere in the range of $9-$12; this is still less than a new paperback. I don’t like trade paperbacks either, mainly because I’m obsessed with keeping the spines of my books intact.
That’s really a good question. I’m going to keep an eye out whenever I’m in a bookstore to find out. This reminds me of how I’ve always wondered who buys Spam (the meat product). In about 10 years of watching, I’ve seen someone put it in their cart once. It was an older couple, and they bought about 20 cans.
lainf, you’re using the term meat a bit loosely, wouldn’t you say?
As to the OP, I almost never buy paperback if there’s a hardcover alternative. While I try to shop amazon.com and bn.com, sometimes I just can’t wait and must have it immediately. These instances are very rare, though, to the tune of three times a year, tops.
Also, I have many, many books I probably will never read. I purchased them because they look fab on my bookshelves. Many of them are older books from the early twentieth century and late 19th century. Used bookstores kick ass.
I tend to buy hardcover for “important” books that I want to keep: A Brief History of Time, The Demon-Haunted World, The Hunting of the President, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, The Lies of George W. Bush, that sort of stuff.
I tend to buy softcover when there are no hardcovers available, and paperbacks for “casual reading” stuff. I’ve toyed with the idea of getting all my Terry Pratchett books in hardcover, but that would require massive amounts of bling-bling…
I do the same thing, except for putting plastic slipcovers on the DJs. If you buy hardcovers new, they’re often discounted. I also scout out thrift stores and second-hand stores for hardbacks. You can find like-new HBs for $1-2 at the Goodwill or Salvation Army of you look.
I’ve seen a lot of tradepaperback hate mentioned in other threads on the board, and I’ve never quite understood it. I like trade paperbacks. They’re easy to carry and hold, and aren’t as expensive as a new hardback. I hate regular mass-market PBs, the little ones, but yeah, I like trade paperbacks. That’s my dirty little secret. Sometimes they’re only $9 or $10 at Target, for current bestsellers. Okay, I’ll go hide now.
Nurses?
I work 3 days a week and make a pretty good wage and I buy hardcover books because I don’t want to wait for the paperback to come out. But I usually find what I want at Costco and if I don’t, I’ll spend the 25-35 bucks at Borders. Some of my girlfriends have their toe nails done for that every 2 weeks but most of my work friends would rather buy the new bestseller. Sometimes we pass it around, but tastes differ and I see it as one of the good things about my job that I can afford a book or two every month
I often do. If I find a book that I want NOW, I will buy it. The prices are high, but it is my favorite form of entertainment and so I don’t begrudge myself.
On reading further comments (and re-reading my own), I have realized that there are other important factors to me:
Quality of Workmanship
When I need a new wood chisel, or a new belt sander, I buy the best one money can buy (within reason). There’s a certain pleasure to be had in handling good quality tools.
Likewise, it is so much more enjoyable to read a book that is nicely bound. I’m not talking about cheap book-club editions (with those faux-deckled edges). I’m talking about smooth-cut pages bound in multiple “signatures” and finished off with that funny checkered strip at the edge. For this reason, whenever Amazon offers them, I buy library editions of my books.
Quality of Content
I prefer my technical books to be hard bound. Of three recent books I purchased on the subject of Web Services, the two paperback ones (only available as such) were typical “XYZ in 21 days” style books, fully buzzward-compliant, with no depth. The hardcover one, is actually a college textbook with multiple authors, a rich bibliography, and very in-depth treatment of the subject.
I find that if a technical book is hardbound, this is often a clue as to the quality of the content.
Oh, and gobear, I can’t for the life of me figure out what this odd snippet meant (after your quoting of my prior post):
My daughter works in a used book store, and I can have a REASONABLE number of dust covers put in the plastic (Mylar, really, and it’s very nice quality) slipcovers for free. The owners are delighted to do this, as I have done favors for them over the years.
I hate trade paperbacks because they are usually just as shoddily made as most paperbacks, plus I find the size to be unwieldy. If I buy a paperback, I want to be able to stick it in my purse or in my bathroom windowsill (which is where I keep my bathroom reading materials) and trade paperbacks are just too big for that. I also don’t like shelving trade paperbacks with regular sized paperbacks, the difference in the sizes just looks wrong to me.
Mostly, though, I hate trade PBs because the publishers are cynically aware that they can charge a good deal more money for a paperback if they will just print it in a slightly different format. Their cost differential is almost zero (unless they add stuff like lots of illustrations or photos).
You just aren’t shopping at the right bookstores!