Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Funny how comparisons to pbooks always involve older books, or special collector's editions; nobody talks about the joys of the pulp mmpb--the cracked spine, the curved-back cover that no longer closes flat, the brittle yellowing paper, the tiny text that runs so close to the center margin that you have to break the glue to read it, and then the pages start falling out...
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This doesn't
at all diminish your point (I'm not conflating my single data point personal preferences into a larger set
), but I've actually been buying some of those books from evilBay. I recently bought an Escoffier...not a nice, old copy, but a grungy, yellowing paperback with corner-folds and creased cover. I've actually bought photography monographs that are yellowed and worn, rather than as pristine as possible. I am attracted to the title first, of course, but then to the signs of the "life" the book has led. Secondhand bookstores - with their aisles of stained and creased and (often repeatedly) discarded airport-quality paperbacks, or their very old, falling-apart, near-worthless-through-damage "classic" literature series - are my sacred places.
(Note, I am an introvert with little social circle IRL, and, tacitly or otherwise, imbue many found objects with an emotional history or character, for my own sentimental or amused pleasure. I'm okay with that.
)
Cheers,
Marc