Lately all I’ve been reading are Trek books. One day I was in a rush to get out the door to go to work and I absentmindedly put the one I was reading in my coat pocket. I paused, realized what I did, and went “oh, so that’s why they’re called Pocket Books!” and chuckled. Perfect format to travel with. I’m gonna miss it.
Mass Market Paperbacks
- Thread starter bdub76
- Start date
Although I don’t like that they’re getting rid of MMPBs, because it means less consumer choice and higher expenses for those who want a physical copy, I guess I am part of the problem, because I have largely switched almost entirely to ebooks. Star Trek books are pretty much the only books I still buy in physical form anymore. 
I miss them. I hate the "tall" format, I don't much care for TPBs and especially not for paying TPB prices for potboilers that should be mmpbs, and honestly just for overall accessibility the mmpb is a great format. I'll go out of my way to track down, like, an old bantam or signet classic rather than buy whatever current edition is out there, all else being equal. (And this is not new -- I think I stopped buying Harry Potter books after the third one or so because that's when there stopped being mmpb editions, IIRC.) There are so many times when I get some new doorstop fantasy or whatever and it's just unpleasant as a TPB. If the mmpb was good enough for Lonesome Dove and Les Miserables, for The Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire, it's good enough for new books, too. I just pulled a couple of the Bachman Books from the library and, nope, can't do it, early King is mmpb or nothing for me. It's a comfortable, portable, readable format and its demise has been a danged shame.
I find the large pockets in cargo pants works well for carrying trade paperbacks and even hardcovers around, though with larger hardcovers it can create an awkward drag effect. I have a couple of vests with pockets which also work well for carrying trade paperbacks around. Granted, you can't beat the convenience of MMPBs, but adapting to their loss isn't insurmountable.
There's an economic angle for why TPBs are preferred over MMPBs by retailers. MMPBs have to be sold at a fixed price, and after a certain amount of time, retailers are forced to return any unsold MMPBs to their distributor at a loss of profit to them. TPBs on the other hand can be marked down to discount prices after this interval of time thus insuring that retailers will get some profit off of them, even if it is less than its initial retail price.
Sadly the last time I went to the Barnes & Noble closest to me, this was probably a year or two ago at least, they almost seemed to have more games and toys and stuff like that than they did books.
It was the same for me.
I've been about 90% e-book and digital comics for a while, but I'm still disappointed to hear about the death of the mass market paperback, they've always been my preferred format for physical books. The lower price and the smaller size has always made them much more convenient that trades or hardcovers.
I'll cop to preferring dead-tree books myself, partly because I'm a technophobic dinosaur, but also because I spend enough time writing and editing onscreen that I want to unplug when simply reading for pleasure.
And I still prowl used bookstores looking for cool old paperbacks like the ones I grew up on. "Ooh! Fritz Leiber! Tanith Lee! Doc Savage!"
That being said, I can't deny that the "mass-market" those paperbacks were designed for has been going away for decades now. Which is a shame because, back in the day, that's how people got hooked on the reading habit -- from picking up cheap paperbacks at the drug store. (And, okay, libraries.)
Bookstores are great, but they tend to preach to converted; i.e. folks who are already in the habit of reading for pleasure. As opposed to picking up a book as an impulse buy at the supermarket.
Can ebooks hook people on reading? I don't pretend to know the answer there.
And I still prowl used bookstores looking for cool old paperbacks like the ones I grew up on. "Ooh! Fritz Leiber! Tanith Lee! Doc Savage!"
That being said, I can't deny that the "mass-market" those paperbacks were designed for has been going away for decades now. Which is a shame because, back in the day, that's how people got hooked on the reading habit -- from picking up cheap paperbacks at the drug store. (And, okay, libraries.)
Bookstores are great, but they tend to preach to converted; i.e. folks who are already in the habit of reading for pleasure. As opposed to picking up a book as an impulse buy at the supermarket.
Can ebooks hook people on reading? I don't pretend to know the answer there.
When bookshops started selling chocolate and bottled water...
I met my best friend in Jr High, but he moved away that summer. We still stayed in touch through high school and when he came to town we'd always meet up. A few days before our scheduled meet up, I was at the mall with my family. I made a beeline for the bookstore of course (one of two at the mall) and who do I find browsing the Sc-Fi racks but my best friend. 
Later he moved backed to town for college and we both were hired at Crown Books, eventually becoming store managers.
Later he moved backed to town for college and we both were hired at Crown Books, eventually becoming store managers.
I met my best friend in Jr High, but he moved away that summer. We still stayed in touch through high school and when he came to town we'd always meet up. A few days before our scheduled meet up, I was at the mall with my family. I made a beeline for the bookstore of course (one of two at the mall) and who do I find browsing the Sc-Fi racks but my best friend.
I met my best friend in junior high because she spotted me reading a Doc Savage paperback in the school cafeteria. She later worked at the B. Dalton's bookstore at the mall for years.
My best friend says we met because he saw me drawing comic book characters. I got him into Edgar Rice Burroughs and he got me into TrekLit.
