i though that was the normal thing to do tbh. anyone who reads a book with the dust cover on is a monster in my eyes lmao but i like em on a shelf because they protect the book & look nice
I hate the fake sticker thing. I also hate when they make movie or tv show adaptations and then put the actors on the covers. I always try to find the version with the original cover.
@@IcedPeachTea I only have one book with actors on it that I got for a Christmas present about 4 years ago. It's five feet apart and I am so sad it's the actor version cause the og cover is so pretty.
Actually they were originally used to showcase the book in store windows and were meant to be thrown away. Clear store windows didn’t become commonplace until around the beginning of the 20th century and books were for the most part rather bland looking so publishers came up with the idea of dressing the book with colorful art as printing had become cheaper, so that bookshops could display them in their windows. These dust jackets also were used to advertise other books from the publisher. They were printed on very cheap paper because they were disposable. As time went on customers started liking the jackets as the art got better, so publishers started printing them on better and glossy paper and losing the ads. If you happen to find an old HB with the dust jacket from the 1940s and earlier you’ll see the ads and what not. Personally I get Mylar dust jacket covers and protect them right away.
When the covers change halfway through the series and you can't get the original series matching I'm looking at you, Lunar Chronicles Edit: btw I got to lunar chronicles late, and that's why the covers changed for me, lol
if there is a person on the cover but they’re facing away, thats fine. i just can’t with the faces. like, let me imagine my own character please and thank you.
Yes but don't cut out the head like, I don't know why there are some covers with the heads cut off, like sure if you don't want to show the fac ebut there are other ways to do it than cutting the head, it looks weird, I personally would rather have a face than a cut off head
I do hate those fake stickers. I don’t have many books that have that. If the book is interesting enough to me then I’ll buy it and deal with never being able to remove it. It’s annoying. I get having stickers to show that it’s been adapted but at least let me remove it so I can see the full cover
Same, I don't like either the small or big paperback she showed, I want an inbetween size. I don't like the spacing and layout of the big paperbacks, there's so much unnecessary white space
I was with you until the dust jacket murder! You don’t read with it on, you take it off to read and then put it back on to put on the shelf so it, one is protected from dust, but two, and most importantly, looks pretty!
@@cindylou2429 so its not an acceptable train of thought to criticise the unanimously bland book covers only emboldening the toxic habits of consumerism??
Aghhhhh this!! I've got the first two books of "His Dark Materials" trilogy and can't find the third book that's the same size! 😭 I've got two copies of The Amber Spyglass: one that's an inch shorter and one that's an inch taller!
It's funny because I'm French and what you call a "small paperback" is similar to a very standard format we have here for books (but more proportional, like less tall that the one you show), so everytime I buy a book in English I'm like "why are they so big ?" 😂
American (and I'm sure a lot of other countries) have two different types of paperbacks. There's the mass market ones that are smaller and then the other ones that are bigger. I just wish everything was the same size one way or another.
The small ones are cheaper, and easier to carry around, I lived in Paris for 3 months in a language exchange program I am not from the US either though and there I saw were small, like pocket books are pretty popular, maybe because you love to read in public transportation and their are easier to carry and read even if you are standing on a metro, but big books still exist, like I got a rather big paperback version of Eliza and her monsters over there and is the French version
@@patax144 Yeah exactly that. Due to lack of hard cover they are easier to lose shape, hence they are cheaper. But I always favoured them over big books because they are soooooo much easier to carry around. When I'm enjoying the book I prefer to carry it on me so I can take it out whenever I want and enjoy my time. On top of it during my school years especially it had huge benefit of a price. They're usually 2 or 3 times cheaper than hard cover alternative. So I could stock up on dozens of well-known books for cheap ☺️
I prefer the larger Trade paperbacks tbh. So much easier to read, they open more nicely, often the font is slightly bigger, and you don't have to crack the spine to read the words close to the fold. They are a little more annoying to carry around admittedly, but well worth it in my opinion. I'm just incredibly sad I only have three of ten of my favourite series in trade, reading long novels in mass market are a pain.
The smell of old books comes from the breakdown of the paper and the glue used to bind it. Papers and glue from different eras break down at varying rates and have slight changes in the chemical makeups so as someone who has worked with antique and used books for years I can tell you from personal experience that you get so familiar with the different scents you can almost tell when a book was made just from the smell and not how it looks. Of course how and where the book was stored will affect the scent too. Another fun fact is that a lot of old books have a chemical in them called vanillin which makes them faintly smell of vanilla.
I think I’m fine with the book club “stickers”, but I hate the Netflix, Hulu, “Now a major motion picture” ones. That and when they stick the actors onto the cover… I also take the dust jackets off and throw them out. It’s also a sensory issue for me, and I much prefer the look of the plain spine on my bookshelf than the dust jacket design anyway.
Right! I already have an image of what the characters look like in my head and how I interpret all their little idiosyncratic movements and then it feels like I’m being told my version is wrong 😭 also the fan art suddenly is just of the actor
I actually prefer smaller paperbacks, I generally do not like larger paperbacks because they are such a pain in the ass to carry if I'm wanting to read on the go, also dust covers I use them as makeshift book marks. Books with people's faces I can kinda agree with unless its a licensed book or based off an IP.
Personally im obsessed with small paperbacks, they're my favorites!! They fit so nicely in my bag and they just feel nice to hold. But i agree with absolutely everything else. I hate dust jackets
I take the dust covers off while reading the book but when I’m done I put it back on bc most of the time the book has a plain cover so the dust cover is pretty
The smaller paperbacks I don't mind actually, theyre handy and compact! Don't mind the people on the front. Pretty much yes to everyhing else, though i keep the dust jackets, just not on the books
I especially struggle with the books where the front cover is smaller-I still haven’t read The Overstory because it is printed that way and I’m waiting for a re-print. I also don’t like book covers that have visuals from the tv/movie (unless it is the rare situation where the book came after). It interferes with my imagination.
I always take the dust jackets off when I read and store them separately. Recently, I've started cutting the front cover off the dust jackets to use as mini posters, if I like the cover well enough.
i love a good old school tiny paperback. takes me back to 10-11 year old me reading hand-me-down mystery books because i was a kid with a love for literature but no way to get books for myself. family members and teachers would give me old books from the 80s and 90s. i just picked one up that's from the 50s, this copy printed in the 70s. they're so easy to carry around in my bag and i fold the entire cover back sometimes lol. i just appreciate them a lot.
Honestly, I usually don't mind the people on the front cover because there's still soo much fantasy you csn bring into the whole story yourself, so having 1 character there is acceptable FOR ME
I agreed about the stickers and dont most of yours. I audibly gasped at the small paperbacks because i wish EVERY book could be a small paperback 😂. YES I AGREE WITH THE LAST ONE. I dont throw them out but i cant stand them. I love paperbacks and when the cover is just on the book instead of a jacket. I tape my book jackets to the books for this reason
I take off the dust covers and set them to the side so they are only on the book when it is on the shelf. No reading problem. And they still look fancy on the shelf
I was completely with you until you said you throw the dust jackets away! 😂 I take them off while I am reading the book, then put them back on when I am done with the book!
The only exception I have for the people on the front is tog bc I hate the redesign covers. But biggest book ick is when they redesign the covers of books and completely stop selling the old version so if u bought half the series in the old version u can’t have the completed set
I thought I was the only one who thought the real people on the cover of books was an ick. I agree! I'm glad the Throne of Glass books have new art for the covers now that I'm buying them to read. The dust covers I put away until I'm done reading the book.
I honestly love the look of hardcover books that come with dust covers, WITHOUT the dust covers. I just really like how it feels and looks. I still keep the dust covers bc I like the cover, but I never put them on the book.
As someone who works in a bookstore with everything from antiques dating back to the 1500s to the newest releases, I am here to give a PSA that for some hardcover dust jackets... you're going to want to keep them. If you have any inkling that you might want to sell it or keep its value one day at least (if not do as you will). A dustcover on a book can sometimes be the difference between a first edition book being worth tens of dollars or hundreds, sometimes thousands. Example: A first edition "Gone With the Wind" in good condition without a dust jacket $75 or a first edition in very good condition thanks to a dust jacket $250.
Oh gosh, I agree with so much of this. I absolutely hate it when I go to buy a book or replace a book that got loaned away and never returned only to not be able to find anything except the version with the awful "sticker".
I would literally trade every special edition hardcover book on my shelf for tiny paperbacks, their so much easier to just chuck in your bag or haul around anywhere, I read them 10× faster
I actually like "small paperbacks", or "mass market paperbacks" as they are more commonly known. Portable and cheap, though the quality has gone down a lot, and publishers changed their size, making them taller (which makes them uglier, in my opinion).
Small paperbacks are cheaper and easier to carry for people like me that like to read while on the bus or just like to carry books to places for reading
I hate the covers too except good quality library books where they are taped down and not too glossy. I also keep them for my book shelf but have read them with the covers taken off before. My favorite type of book is those cardboardy backed ones. Love them.
THANK YOU on the dust jackets, they rarely have good info, they get so ruined, and 9.9999 times out of 10 the book underneath is gorgeous as a "minimal ✨️aesthetic✨️bookshelf" book instead of a weirdly over-graphic mess
As a (former) librarian who's covered a bajillion books, I agree - there's nothing worse than the double paperback cover where the first one is smaller than the second. It's such a hassle to cover and it takes a while for you to learn how to cover the front without ruining the second page. Also, dust jackets on hardcovers look really pretty once you cover them, library style, but without that they are quite impractical.
Small paperbacks like the Penguin Great Ideas series which has stuff by Nietzche, Peter Singer, Oscar Wilde and lots of other brilliant writers are great. Also the penguin little black classics.
Mass market size “small” paperbacks are generally more collectible, more easily to store, and more readily available for older out of print books than their larger trade paperback cousins.
