Skip to main content

Last Breath for the Hardback.

Not sure what to make of this:
With its creamy paper and embossed fabric covers, the hardback has always been the elite format for literary fiction.

Now Picador, an imprint of Pan MacMillan, the 8th largest publisher in the UK, which has authors such as Helen Fielding, Don DeLillo and Cormac McCarthy on its books, has called time on what it describes as "a moribund market". From next year it will launch almost every new novel as a £7.99 paperback, with other large publishers expected to follow.
I've always preferred buying paperbacks because they're cheaper.

But then again, I have to admit the experience of reading a hardcover book is incomparable to reading a cheap paperback. The smooth, thick paper, the feeling of substantial weight in your hands... holding and smelling the book, carrying it around with the dust cover off... reading a hardcover isn't just about enjoying the actual contents printed within. After all, you're paying a premium for this edition. It's okay to enjoy your book in a perverse way! (I won't tell if you don't...)

I don't buy every book in hardcover of course, but I will miss the format once it's gone. Picador isn't out to banish it forever though. They're planning "limited edition" releases of their future books which are basically tarted up hardcovers--ribbon bookmarks, fabric head and tail bands, the works. But I don't fancy rushing out to buy a copy of a book I want in hardcover before they're gone... forever.

But then again (again) I suppose you could argue that hardcovers have always been a sort of "limited edition" anyway. Except without the fancy add-ons.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous20/11/07 10:30 am

    I've always preferred paperbacks. Hardbacks have always seemed so inflexible and unfriendly. And the dust cover gets in the way ALL THE TIME!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ted Mahsun20/11/07 10:34 am

    I usually take off the dust covers and keep 'em somewhere safe if I'm reading a hardcover.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous21/11/07 9:25 am

    as much as i love the flexibility and mobility of paperbacks, i have to admit hardcovers looks handsome on the shelves..

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous21/11/07 9:27 am

    correction:

    *look, not looks.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ted Mahsun21/11/07 10:50 am

    Haha! They sure do... hardbacks are nice as decoration... which is kind of sad, really, when you think about it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. ビビ21/11/07 9:39 pm

    I always believe that if someone is willing to buy a hardcover version of a book, he/she must really crave for it because it can be quite sometime till the paperback version comes out and the waiting is just agony.

    I'm gonna miss hardcovers!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Chet22/11/07 6:04 pm

    I remember as a poor undergraduate student in England, I gave Toni Morrison's Beloved the miss (despite the fact that she gave a talk on campus as part of her Beloved book tour) and bought Maxine Hong Kingston's Tripmaster Monkey instead because it had been 10 years since her last book (China Men). Sadly, till today, I have yet to finish Tripmaster Monkey. I later found a used copy (trade paperback version) of Beloved - that one also still to finish.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Chet22/11/07 6:06 pm

    P/S Both were hardcover versions, of course, which is what we're discussing here. Sorry I wasn't clear.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ted Mahsun23/11/07 1:57 am

    Maybe it's time to dig them out again and try finishing them this time?

    I find hardcovers easier to read and more pleasant to experience while sunk in a huge comfy armchair... with coffee or tea in easy reach. It just isn't the same with a paperback.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REVIEW: Confessions of an Old Boy by Kam Raslan

Kam Raslan's right. In the preface for his new book, Confessions of an Old Boy: The Dato' Hamid Adventures he writes that we've known Dato' Hamid all our lives. Seeing as my own dad is an old boy of MCKK, the people I get to meet when he drags me to an Old Boy function and the people he tells me of, reflect the characters found in Kam's book. It really does feel like I've known Dato' Hamid all my life. Dato' Hamid is a civil servant of the Tunku Abdul Rahman generation. He is the sort of person you rarely see nowadays, a fine example of the anachronistic Malay. This generation, groomed in the ways of the colonial British would be out of place not just in 21st century Malaysia, but in Britain too. And yet, Dato' Hamid, in all his snobbishness and patronising ways, is essentially a Malaysian. Without people like him, our country would probably never exist at all. At least not like we know it now. I'm glad that Kam Raslan decided to capture this ...
5 comments
Read more

Lesson: Commemorative Covers are Lame.

Well, I got the first day cover that commemorates the 35th anniversary of the establishment diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Except that it's not a first day cover, it's a commemorative cover, which is a slightly different beast. I guess I should read the news article properly next time! The difference between the two is that first day covers are specially-designed envelopes stuck on with specially-designed stamps, and marked with a specially-designed postmark. A commemorative cover is a specially-designed envelope... and that's it. All in all, it's an unremarkable affair, especially if you're used to well-designed first day covers (not that Malaysian first day covers are well-designed... but I digress). Oh sure, a commemorative cover has a stamp printed right on to it but that's just like an overglorified aerogramme. Lame. On the whole, what a disappointment. I haven't been collecting first day cover...
5 comments
Read more

REVIEW: Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami.

UPDATE: My Wind/Pinball review can be found here . ISBN: n/a Publisher: n/a Paperback: 160 pages In Murakami fan circles, simply owning a copy of Pinball, 1973 is a mark of hardcore-ness. Like Hear the Wind Sing before it, Haruki Murakami does not allow English translations of Pinball, 1973 to be published outside of Japan. Back in the 80s, Alfred Birnbaum translated it into English and Kodansha published it as a novel for Japanese students who wanted to improve their English. While the English edition of Hear the Wind Sing continues to be reprinted and sold in Japan (and available for a moderate sum via eBay, see my review ), Kodansha stopped its reprint runs of the English edition of Pinball, 1973 and has now become a collector's item, fetching vast amounts of money on auction sites and reseller stores. Last time I checked, the cheapest copy went for USD$2500. Of course, Murakami addicts or the curious can always download a less than legal PDF of the book, painst...
18 comments
Read more