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2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

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18475835 No.18475835 [Reply] [Original]

Paperback books are the worst fucking thing ever. They have the shittiest binding and always end up becoming loose and floppy the second you turn it open too far. I fucking hate them. I always buy hardcover.

>> No.18475840

>>18475835
>t. brute

>> No.18475844
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18475844

>>18475835
wtf are you doing to your books that they fall apart like this? I don't understand you people with your broken bindings and creased spines and shit. Unless you're buying mass market paperbacks you have no excuses. Stop treating your things like shit if you want them to last.

>> No.18475852

>>18475844
It's not that they fall apart, it's that they become loose and flop open if you even dare open it up more than half an inch.

>> No.18475861

>>18475852
Just leave it face down on the side that's flopping open for like a day and this won't happen anymore retard

>> No.18475868

No one asked. Also you're wrong.

>> No.18475904

>>18475835
I don't like paperbacks either but the spiritual jew in me says "oy vey don't spend more money for the same book"

>> No.18475942

>>18475835
Post shelves.

>> No.18476175

>>18475835
Paperbacks were originally intended to be read once or twice and then disposed of. Chill.

>> No.18476545

Paperback War and Peace is pathetic. Should’ve gotten every man’s or something. Anyone have a recommendation?

>> No.18476615

>>18475835
Pirate ebooks for all books. If you love it and want to keep it, buy the hardcover. Paperback is for poor people.

>> No.18476638

Do paperbacks with signatures exist

>> No.18476665

>>18475904
You must learn to put your inner jew into your inner oven. Spending a littlr extra money on something is worth it if you want quality. Especially if it's so little as a ten dollar difference between paperback and trade or hardcover. Unless you're a poorfag neet or buying literal hundreds of books a year, get something of a higher quality, fren

>> No.18476682

such a retard opinion. hardcovers are the most annoying thing to hold.

>> No.18476706

>>18476682
Clumsy retard hands typed this post

>> No.18476742

>>18475835
i only buy the earliest possible printing of old hard backs that i can find for a reasonble price. fuck paper backs unless you know the book your read is schlock and you just wanna read it to know what the hype is about, otherwise hard backs all the way

>> No.18476780
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18476780

>he doesn't sew his books together in folios to ensure maximum durability
ngtmi
keep buying hardcovers but the shelf life is only as long as the glue its bound together in.

>> No.18476789

>>18476780
>sew his books together in folios
link to instructions?

>> No.18476933

>>18475904
If you think like that pirate the ebook to read of PC or Kindle paperwhite.

>> No.18476960

>>18475904
How can I harness the power of my spiritual jew? Is that something you can train? Is it taught?

>> No.18477262

>>18476789
Trail and error is the only way to learn

>> No.18477712

>>18477262
wrong

>> No.18478338

>not leather
Are you poor?

>> No.18479126

>>18475835
Hardcover is also twice as expensive and I don't smash my books or piss on them.

>> No.18479145

>>18475835
why did this need a thread?

>> No.18481014

they are based for things you want to read only once

>> No.18481045
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18481045

>>18476545

War and peace hardback ? Why yes.

>> No.18481071

Paperbacks are so much easier and fun to read than hardbacks.

>> No.18481332

>>18476780
Extremely based

>> No.18481490

>>18478338
The only good quality leather-bound books in english are Bible's sadly
Otherwise it's cheap, garbage quality leather

>> No.18482259

>>18476638
They used to, yep. Early Penguin pocketbook-sized paperbacks all had sewn signatures. New Directions and Grove Press trades all had them, and a few ND pocketbooks did, as well. Some older Tuttle books had them. I guess it was all too expensive to continue. I wish they'd come back, though.

>> No.18482284

>>18475835
OP buys Dover Classics.

>> No.18482296

>>18476545
I've read two different paperback copies of W&P and neither was an issue

>> No.18482509

>>18476638
>>18482259
Its expensive and time consuming to make them so most companies don't bother. Sewing signatures together is actually the most time consuming part of making a book so theres not much point in compiling a sewn text block then making it a paperback.

>> No.18482564

>>18482509
I didn't mean signatures sown together, I meant signatures that are glued to the cover instead of perfect binding
>>18482259
That sucks, I wonder if I could find a few used

>> No.18482574

>>18482564
Early penguins still show up used fairly often. They're great and very comfy to read

>> No.18482580

>>18476638
Sure do, NYRB and many other still do paperbacks with signatures.

>> No.18482611

>>18482564
>I didn't mean signatures sown together, I meant signatures that are glued to the cover instead of perfect binding
Impossible. The internal signatures would fall out of the folio.
Recently I've been playing around with making chapbooks that are composed of 4-5 folios stapled together with a paper cover glued on and the result is interesting. After glue and a strip of cloth is applied to the spine you barely notice the staples at all but I don't think that you could break down the classic codex structure any more simply than that though. If someone could figure out a way I'd love to see it because perfect bindings are crap but they're also extremely efficient to produce.

>> No.18482672
File: 104 KB, 620x464, 3-perfect-with-signatures.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
18482672

>>18482611
Oh wait I'm retarded, I thought perfect binding was when each page edge was glued to the cover, actually it's still perfect binding with signatures like pic related
But yeah, pic related is what I meant
I fucking hate it when hardbacks have this or even no signatures at all
>>18482580
Sadly don't have any somehow
>>18482574
I have a lot of penguins from the 70's but none have signatures, do you have any pics?

>> No.18482720

>>18482509
It is not really expensive or time consuming, the process has been mechinized for ages. It is more that it is simpler to glue for high volume, sewing requires complex machinery. Cost is about the same but wait time is longer for sewn since the demand for time on machinery is high, this is why companies which sell sewn bindings often are out of stock on titles for long periods. Look at Taschen or LOA, all sewn and about the same cost as a normal hardback despite both using much higher quality paper.

>> No.18482764

Is there any actual advantage to sewn signatures btw
I mean I vastly prefer how they look and feel, especially how the pages spread out but then is it anymore robust? Will they last longer?

>> No.18482809

>>18482764
They are mostly easier to repair. Glued binding can be just as long lasting and even harder wearing when done well and often will last longer before repair is needed. Modern glues are quite good and being glued does not mean it is going to fall apart, depends on the actual process used. When i get home tonight i will take a few pictures to show a quality glued binding and show how to differentiate them.

>> No.18482920

>>18475835
paperbacks are the best. they make it easier to rip out the page when you're done reading it so you can keep track of your progress easily.

>> No.18482929

>>18475904
>proclaims to be a spiritual jew and then spends money he doesn't have to
i pirate everything i read with a naked connection because VPNs cost money and are antithetical to the spirit of piracy, by which I mean, my inner jew

>> No.18482936

>>18475835
You are a pretentious fag and rarely read.

>> No.18482939

>>18475852
Kek. No.
t. Has paperbacks older than I am that I read annually.

>> No.18482946

>>18477262
Seems pretty fucking retarded to say on a board dedicated to READING.

>> No.18484162

>>18475844
>wtf are you doing to your books that they fall apart like this? I don't understand you people with your broken bindings and creased spines and shit. Unless you're buying mass market paperbacks you have no excuses. Stop treating your things like shit if you want them to last.
Older paperback books with glued bindings will fall apart over time.
The glue that holds the pages together becomes brittle and cracks, and the pages will start falling out.
It’s really annoying for obscure history books from University publishing houses.
Supposedly the newer glues used for current glued bindings are better, but it can take a few decades to tell, so you can’t really know whether current books with glued bindings really will hold up.
Sewed bindings are way easier to fix if they fail, and the sewn bindings are much less likely to fail.

>> No.18484172

>>18476638
>Do paperbacks with signatures exist
Yes, but I usually only run into it on certain things like dome Comic Books( ie. Graphic Novels) like Tintin, and on German publications like specialty books from Bauhaus Dessau.
French books used to be published in sewn signatures, with really cheap paper covers, with the understanding the buyer would take the book to a binder and put a better binding on, to their preference and/or price.

>> No.18484186

>>18476742
>i only buy the earliest possible printing of old hard backs that i can find for a reasonble price. fuck paper backs unless you know the book your read is schlock and you just wanna read it to know what the hype is about, otherwise hard backs all the way
Be wary of hardback books published in the second half of the 1800s, and maybe early 1900s.
Paper during that period had switched from the high quality rag paper that was previously used,
To paper made from wood pulp, but the issue with acid from the lignin in the wood wasn’t known yet, so books published during this period including expensive ones, sometimes have paper acidity issues.
Later, the issue was realized, and better books used rag paper again, or used wood pulp paper that had been treated to buffer against acid, with cheap wood pulp paper being reserved for cheap “pulp” books.

>> No.18484194

>>18482611
Sewn paperback books exist.
The sewn dignitaries are glued into a paper cover.

>> No.18484212

>>18482611
The signatures are still stitched or stapled individually, just the binding is glued.

>>18484162
>The glue that holds the pages together becomes brittle and cracks, and the pages will start falling out.
That is the early synthetic glues, generally PVA which is not very flexible. Around 1950 they moved from hide glues which have great flexibility to synthetics, and there are a couple decades worth of shit books as a result until they figured out the right glues to use. Most any glued binding made after 1970 or so will be good unless it is a cheap edition.

>>18484194
That is stitching, which is just the sewing in the signatures itself. A sewn binding sews the signatures together after that, this is rather rare in paper backs but it does exist.

>> No.18484224

>>18475835
They're cheap, you can get them used off amazog for like $3, and I hate reading books off a screen so they're the way to go.

>> No.18484361

If their original purpose was to save on money/materials and space, they were rendered obsolete by the arrival of ebooks. Go either hardcover or electronic, don't fall for the half assed middle point that pleases nobody.

>> No.18484396

>>18484361
Their original purpose was too meet demand at a time when mechanized sewn bindings was impractical since building and designing the machinery to do them was cost prohibitive for a new and unknown market.

>> No.18484497

>>18484361
This is true. In the future I think physical publishing is going to revert back to the days of artisanal workshops and everyone will just read stuff online and own a small library of classics which are hand bound in leather and can be handed down for generations.

>> No.18484682

>>18475835
I read most voraciously on the toilet. The hardback is very burdensome on the wrists after an hour.

>> No.18484927

>>18481045
Based

>> No.18484983

>>18476665
>so little
>ten dollar more for a book

>> No.18484993

>>18484682
>sitting one hour in the toilet
Wtf are you doing you absolute faggot

>> No.18485051

>>18475835
Calm down, sperg.

>> No.18485106

>>18484993
reading

>> No.18485144

>>18475835
>buy
Lmao get an ereader + libgen

>> No.18485204

>>18476960
>"harnessing your spiritual jew" chapter 1
>basic financial literacy