The Sunday Salon: An Ode to the Mass Market Paperback
Ah, the venerable and humble mass market paperback. If you are an aficionado of any kind of speculative fiction, you’re very, very familiar with the smallest kind of book commercially available; some authors’ debuts in the speculative genres occur only in mass market paperback form. But while my tastes in codexes have evolved over the years, I still find myself reaching for mass market paperbacks with the same joy and glee I did when I was a wee, sticky-fingered lass.
(I was going to actually wrote an ode, but then I couldn’t decide on which kind of ode I wanted to write.)
They’re the perfect size for my hands. I can hold a book and keep it open with one hand while propping up my elbow, providing a perfect level for me to read at while still having a hand free. But beyond that, they’re neat little bricks that look great piled up and next to each other. I always get a little thrill of excitement when I discover the mass market paperbacks in a thrift store or used book shop. I recently went to Acappella Books in Little Five Points (while getting the tiara I am wearing at this very moment!), and I was delighted to find short shelves that would only admit mass market paperbacks. Beautiful. They also manage to fit in loads of pages for relatively little weight; you can easily toss in a thousand-page mass market paperback into your bag and be none the wiser for the weight.
Secondly, their cheap pages age wonderfully. There’s just something about the way the pages darken and yellow. Other books, especially hardcover books, have pages that tend towards ivory and beige as they get older, since their paper is, well, high quality. Not so with paperbacks. There’s nothing quite like discovering a book with highlighter yellow edges and a significantly creased cover.
But I think my favorite thing about them is just how accessible they are. They’re usually eight to ten dollars new, and fifty cents to a dollar at thrift stores. They’re not bulky. Pretty much anything under the sun is published in this format, especially science fiction and fantasy (often with hilariously bad covers, which just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and nostalgic inside). They’re small enough to fit the hands of children who are reading things way above their age range and hide from their parents; in fact, they’re easy to squirrel away. Hardcovers demand to be seen and put on shelves and stacked; mass market paperbacks are cozy and intimate. Ultimately, in the end, a codex is a codex is a codex, but I’ll always have a huge soft spot for this kind.
Let’s see… this week I finished Reading in the Dark and A History of Reading, AND ALSO I’M AT DRAGON*CON RIGHT NOW. I’m currently dressed as ’80s Zelda and today’s agenda includes a Stan Lee panel, which means two hours in line. But it’ll be worth it, because he’s an icon. (And also I got sucked into Marvel this summer.) I think next week’s Sunday Salon will be coverage of a Tor panel I attended on Friday, but we’ll see.
Anastasia at Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog is giving away a copy of The Postmortal until Tuesday. Splash of Our Worlds is giving away several books and some swag until Thursday. Tor/Forge is giving away a Mistborn prize pack of all four Mistborn books—including The Alloy of Law—until Tuesday, and a young adult bundle until September 12th. You must sign up for their newsletter to enter. The Baen Free Library is full of free downloads, including The Shadow of the Lion and On Basilisk Station. Night Shade Books is offering Butcher Bird and Grey as free downloads at the moment. Vertigo Comics is offering free downloads of the first issue of several series, including Fables, The Unwritten, and Y: The Last Man. (And you will go download The Unwritten.) If I’ve missed your giveaway or freebie, drop me a line!
What’s your favorite kind of book and why?
I like mass market paperbacks, but only if they’re ~400 pages or less. Anything bigger than that and I have a hard time reading them without breaking/severely creasing the spine, which I hate. I think my favorite format is actually trade paperback, though those can get weirdly heavy for some reason.
Hmm! Yeah, I find trade paperbacks a bit awkward, since they can get lop-sided if they’re too large.
I don’t mind cracking the spine, but then again, my main source of mass market paperbacks is the thrift store, so they usually come pre-cracked.
I’m a hardcover girl myself. They make me happy. I think I’m in the minority with that, though.
I like them too, but they can be difficult to transport…
Great post – i am totally with you. I love them. Anything bigger and they are too hard to manage. My favourite thing about them is the way that they age too. The yellowing of the pages, the creasing of the spines and covers – they look so loved
Exactly! It’s a great look.
I’m with Anastasia — I like mass markets until they get too big, because I, too, hate a broken spine. Hardcovers are too unwieldy, though, so I tend to prefer trade paperbacks for books with lots of pages.
I think we can all agree paperbacks are just awesome.
I’m a proud member of Team Mass Market Paperback. Most of them are small enough to fit comfortably in even my ridiculously tiny hands, and the price point sure doesn’t hurt. I almost never buy hardcovers or trade paperbacks by new-to-me authors, but I’m often willing to take a chance on a mass market paperback. I rather hope my own novel debuts in that format so there’s a greater chance random readers will give it a go.
Ha! That’s hilarious! I love them because my giant hands can each manage one on their own. I’m like a book ninja with those bad boys.
It’s usual for a speculative fiction writer, especially a new one, so that’s definitely on the table.