Last week, Publisher’s Weekly shared an article entitled “Last call for the mass market paperback”. I was stunned, and saddened. In fact, I may have been a little misty-eyed.
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| On my shelves |
When I was in
junior high school (yes, I'm old enough that it was junior high, not middle
school), high school, even undergrad and grad school, I loved mass market
paperbacks.
Not only were
they small enough to fit into my purse or my book bag, they were inexpensive
enough that even a poor student like me could afford to buy them.
And yes, I
would count the months after the hardcover release of a particularly desired
title in anxious anticipation.
When I worked
in independent bookstores (two different ones, at different stages in my life),
they were the most popular format. And one of the most often-asked
questions was "When will that be released in paperback?". And
we booksellers knew that the customer meant "mass market paperback"
because there were few books that went to trade paperback format first back in
the late 1980s.
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| On my shelves |
Years later, in
the early 2000s (well before e-galleys existed), when I first started my book
review blog, I used to purchase mass market paperbacks. At the time, cozy
mysteries were often published only in that format. And
that suited this reviewer just fine, because I could afford to purchase more of
them.
I still have
shelves full of mass market paperbacks. And I'll keep them until they
crumble.
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