Mass Market Paperbacks

[DarrenTR1970]

I'm at work, so I can't look at my shelf, but I know that I've got a few paperbacks that are older than I am sitting there still in good condition; one of them being an early copy of a King Kong adaptation written by Merian C. Cooper
However, there are a few hardback books were the spine is broken/breaking and the pages are falling out.
My most prized possession, and the one book I would save in a fire is "Aircraft Carriers" by Norman Polmar, copyright 1968.
It's the book that got me started on my love of naval history.

 

[veritech]

Even those are going by the wayside. There used to be dozens of used shops within a 30 mile radius, but the only left in our area is a Half-Price Books. Fortunately, our library system still maintains a sale twice a year, where you can come away with a lot of books (and other media) for less than ten bucks.

Speaking of Half-Price Books . . . .

Has anyone noticed an increase in price for mmpb's? It's like they find books that are "collectable" and charge accordingly. Many of the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realm mmpb novels are out of print and are now priced by Half-Price Books at 4 or 5 times their cover price. Same goes for comic book trade paperbacks, etc.

It kind of defeats the purpose of "half-price" used bookstores, right? If I want to pay ebay prices, I will stay home and shop ebay rather than wasting gas to be gouged! lol

 

[DarrenTR1970]

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.

One year, my Mom tasked me with helping her friend set up a used bookstore here in Woodinville.
I spent the majority of the summer going through boxes of books, organizing them and putting them on the shelves.
She couldn't afford to pay me, so she gave me the choice of which novel series I could have for free, either an almost complete run of TOS at the time, or an almost complete run of Doc Savage reprints.
I chose the later and managed to acquire the remaining novels through various used bookstores and ended up with a complete set.
I always kept a list handy when shopping to cross check what the store had vs what was on my shelf.
Unfortunately, I had to get rid of them when I lost my job and had to downsize when I moved out of my apartment.
One of the series I would liked to have gotten my hands on was my mother's complete set of original Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mystery novels.
However, my aunt, her eldest sister, got rid of them all when Grandma passed away and she sold the house before we had a chance to go through it and get items we wanted.

 

[vfxart]

It blows that any format of book is set to disappear.
When I want quick info or to have something I can prop up as ref on a screen, I don't mind ebooks, but when I read for the joy of it, then I'm not inclined to grab a digital anything. I want the real deal to sit with. I've bemoaned (people still do that right?) the costs of books over the years as the swindles and bookselling industry continued to fuck itself and others, and MMPBs started to approach what I think of as trade prices. I head to Powell's etc if needed, else yeah eBay or other.
If the standard hardcover to pb gap time still exists, I guess the last that I buy will be books initially published this year...?

 

[Procutus]

My most prized possession, and the one book I would save in a fire is "Aircraft Carriers" by Norman Polmar, copyright 1968.

Mine is a hardcover edition of Sinking of the Titanic: The World's Greatest Sea Disaster, printed in 1912.

 

[ace2k]

The Romance genre's money is made in the eBook format these days.

Makes sense, but I see them enough in stores that there must be some demand for them in a physical format.

 

[mb22]

one of them being an early copy of a King Kong adaptation written by Merian C. Cooper

Probably the 1932 novelization (now public domain) by Delos W. Lovelace, not Cooper.