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Which book format do you prefer?
You're right, so many fantasy books are huge and heavy, so paperbacks are easier to read. I don't just read sf though, I read all kinds of stuff. Also, I collect books(signed first editions etc.) so most of those are hardcover. I don't like those new slightly taller paperbacks...just another scam to charge more money...do we really need 3 formats of paperbacks? And I have no interest in ebooks at all. I like real books.
I prefer to read a trade paperback that I've protected with clear contact paper. For my permanent collection, especially signed first editions, hardcovers are it. But then again, I don't read them, I collect them.
I only read mass market if it's all I can get. Since I tend to read epic fantasy, the mass markets are unwieldy and not well made. Even with clear contact paper to hold them together, a very large volume will start to lose pages upon multiple readings.
I'm reading an ebook now via my laptop (and occasionally my BlackBerry). It's not my favorite, but it's cheap (i.e. free since the novel is a 19th century classic of English literature).
I only do audibooks for non-fiction or a re-read of fiction to refresh my memory.
I prefer the price and portability of mass-market paperbacks, but I'm getting to an age where it's sometimes really hard to read them. Trade paperbacks are much more eye-friendly, but they're expensive.
My preference is ebook followed audio book and then paperback (don't really care what kind of paperback). I really like the portability and ease of storage I get from the ebook. I find audio books very relaxing.
For reading I prefer paperbacks - mmp for price and trades for readability. I carry a book around with me everywhere I go, so portability is essential. Hardcovers are generally too heavy to carry around but I like the fact that they stay open... I also like the look of them better on my shelves. Sigh.
For me in depends on my situation. I ride a bicycle in the summer months (April to Nov) and its unweildy to read hardcovers and lug a huge tome like Anathem.So in the summer I tend to read mass market, but not exclusivly, right now I am reading a Hard Cover. Winter months I tend to read Hardcovers and Trade Paperbacks, again not exclusivly.
Mod
As for "real" books, I prefer whatever I can buy that's not too expensive and is in good shape. I'm buying more and more used or overstock books, so I take what I can get. Sometimes the hardcovers are cheaper than the paperbacks, or SFBC or bookwarehouse.com will have an amazing deal, and then I get mostly hardcovers and the occasional trade paperback.
I'm usually just so glad to find the book for which I'm looking that I don't care too much what format it is!
Overall, I prefer to read mass market paperbacks. They are small, portable and travel well. I just cannot get into ebooks, I need the actual book in my hands. Plus, new paperbacks (or books in general) smell good...
I prefer paperbacks. They usually die after a few decades, but they're so portable. They fit in my lunch box, often in my back or coat pocket. Perfect for every day living.I don't mind hardbacks or trade paperbacks, but they aren't as convenient to carry around. Some of the latter fit in my lunch box (a small Igloo cooler) but most won't. That's just one more thing to juggle on the way in & out of the house. They don't hold with one hand or position as easily, either. I have to wear reading glasses now & the correct distance from my eyes is way more important.
I'm lusting after a Sony Reader, though. I have a hundreds of books in electronic formats, but $300 is just too much money to come up with right now. The ability to make the text larger is pretty cool, but I'm still wondering about converting the various formats & how well it will work when I'm reading outside during lunch. I can't even see my cell phone screen half the time.
In the past I was a paperback all the way kind of girl - mostly for cost and portability.But as books get longer and more and more text gets squeezed on the page I find them harder and harder to read.
So these days I prefer an ebook or, if reading in paper, a trade or hardcover with bigger text and more white space.
Sadly, I am a bit of a snob - I avoid mass market at all cost! They smell musty, make my fingers dirty, and seem to be too small/hard to hold. I have lupus, and sometimes my hands get a bit sore holding mass markets. I always gravitate to the trades, hardcovers if I must.I was so sad when one of my "I'll buy whatever they write" authors switched from printing books in trade, to hard cover then mass market. I have all of his books in trade! The new one just looks out of place. But, I'm told its a sign he's doing well, so I have to wish him well. Does this bug anyone else, the change of format, I mean?
Yes, generally if I start buying a series in one format then I like to stick to that format. Sometimes I have to buy a different format for various reasons, but if I see a used copy in the format to make my collection uniform, then I will purchase and trade out the odd one.I prefer trade paperbacks for reading because of the handling, but if a less expensive format is available (MMPB or remaindered hardback) then my budget demands those.
Budget almost always trumps my book format preference, too. Only on a few, special series will I push for a single format. When I designed & built my wall-to-wall bookshelves, I tried to make sure everything from an MMP to an HB would fit just so I can keep authors & series together in different formats.
Oooh...wall-to-wall bookshelves...*is jealous*
For me, I prefer reading books either in ebook format or listening to audio books over reading an actual paper book. I have a visual impairment which makes reading from a book a little difficult sometimes. I find it much more comfortable to read on a screen where I can change my color scheme to a black background with white text, whether it's my computer, Blackberry or Ipod.I still also love paper books, and will continue to purchase and read them as long as my vision will allow. I do prefer hard covers, but I'll buy whatever I can find the book in at the time if I'm looking for something specific. There's nothing like that experience of settling into a comfy chair with the cat purring in your lap and a great book in your hands.
I prefer MMPs - they fit my hands just right and I like to be able to flip easily to the map in the front, the author bio, the blurb on the back and to look at the artwork on the cover - all of which are hard to do with audio and ebooks. However, I do have a kindle and I'm finding it more and more convenient and easier to use the longer I have it. I've been listening to audio books for over 20 years and love the new advances that transfer an entire mp3 file to my player instead of the constant turning of cassette tapes.
Because I don't pay for audiobooks and rarely if ever for ebooks, and they are stored only on my computer, they don't feel permanent. If a book is by an author I 'collect', I like a nice hard cover for the shelf.
I'm not particularly fond of trade paperbacks, I find them cumbersome and expensive, I'll only buy them if they are the only option.
And I feel insulted by the new 'upperbacks'. They are one to two dollars more expensive.
Just an add on to my previous post.Cant say I am really pleased with e-books. I have some issues with the price point, You cant read them in the tub (Haven't had a bath in a while but still...). I would hate to drop a 400 dollar e-reader in the water.
I like as much book for the buck as I can get, which means small paperbacks, ideally second-hand. I mostly only buy trade paperbacks or hardcovers if I can't get a title in mmpb, or if I just can't wait for a favourite author's new title. (Sometimes this works out--"The Mists of Avalon" never did come out in mmpb, did it?) Also, I am fairly tough on books, I read the hell out of them, so it's not really fair to use library books.
For long books, I prefer hardback. It is difficult to read the middle pages of an 800 page mass market paperback. For medium-sized or short books, I prefer trade paperbacks. But if I'm taking a book to a medical provider's waiting room, I'll take a mass market paperback, because that is easier to transport, and because I'm less upset if I accidently leave the book there. I haven't tried e-books, and, I must admit, I'm not interested in doing so.
I keep costs down by going to library sales and used book stores (both brick-and-mortar and online). At my local used book store, used trade paperbacks usually cost less than used mass market paperbacks, which suits me just fine :0)
I preder cloth bound but I have been doing pretty much all audio books past couple weeks. I have been very week and audio books dont need to be held. I have delvoloped a new respect for them. They are wonderful in they let you read when you cant. I have also found some of the readers are wonderful performers
Renee - a great reader can absolutely make and audibook, can't they? (Although conversely I terrible one can ruin it - I can think of two offhand that I had to stop listening to because the narrator was so bad). I'm glad you've found a way to keep reading.
Its funny. I have actually asked the librarin to look for books for me by certain readers. I have devolped a liking for one called Scott Brick. He did a couple of Demille books and oh my I just loved them
I think people do become fans of particular readers, just as they do of particular books.I listened to Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising Sequence and four of the books had one narrator while the other one had someone different. That different one was set in Wales and the alternate reading did such a wonderful job of all the Welsh words and accents that the last book, also set in Wales with the original narrator, seemed to pale in comparison, even thought it was still very good.
I'll give anything read by Davinia Porter a go! I love her voice. There is a young reader I'm quite fond of too, she lends a lot of pluck to her characters.
I'm a read-everything kind of gal. I usually get my books from the library, so whatever format they have, I'll get. When I buy for my collection (must-have authors or series), I like hardcovers the best, or whatever matches the rest of the series I have.For ease of reading, I prefer hardcovers for longer books. I'm another that gets hand-strain from trying to hold open an 800 page monster in mmp. I'd rather let the book do the work with a trade pb or hardcover. For shorter books, I'm fine with any format, but mmps do carry around easier, and since I always have a book in my purse, the poundage does make a difference.
I'm old-fashioned and prefer paper books of any kind over audio or electronic.
What is an upperback format? I've seen a few responses mention those.
It's the taller mass market paperback. It's not as wide as a trade (and not quite as tall). They've only started coming out in the last two years and it's a weird size, if you ask me. A publisher's excuse to charge an extra buck or two. But I suppose that still makes them cheaper than trade size?
Is that what they're called?They are irksome. Especially because I just got book 10 of a series, and it's an upperback and all the others are regular MMPB, so now it looks all weird on my shelf, since I like to keep things both in chronological and size order, and I clearly can't do both now.
Mod
Funnily enough I'm in the UK and was going to ask if that was a US format as it's not one I've come across before. We've had the bendyback! I've only seen a couple of titles so far but it is basically a hardcover with much thinner printed boards and no dj. I still prefer hardcovers but these days will make do with anything print.
I have an aesthetic preference for trade paperbacks, especially if they have a really nice "feel" to the paper of the cover. They have this pleasant "thunk" going on that seems very silly when I try to find the words to describe it.Hardbacks are ok, but they are so heavy and cumbersome - not to mention often ridiculously priced.
I really dislike mass market paperbacks, although I do pick them up when I'm in a used bookstore and feel a certain urge to nab a bunch of new-to-me books at once. I also like the format for lending out and trading around, because if I don't get them back, I'm not as put out.
If I could afford it, I'd go 100% publishers edition hardcover. They last longer and can even be passed down to children and if cared for grandchildren and great grandchildren. Unfortunately, I'm not a multimillionaire and I don't have limitless book storage, so...I suppose I prefer whatever format I can get. I have series that are a mix of formats while I have others that are all one format or another. Mostly I worry more about storage space and just finding some given book. I don't have an Ereader, but other than that I have every type of paper back, book club editions, publishers editions and a few firsts...
Mike (the Paladin) mentioned book club editions. I know a lot of people dislike them for various reasons, including seeming somehow "flimsy" even though they are hardback. But I have a soft spot for them, for a very specific reason: size. They are often smaller than a regular hardback, and as I have both smallish hands and autoimmune joint problems, the smaller footprint and significantly decreased weight of the format is much more comfortable for me to wield for a length of time than a huge, unwieldly boulder-weight chunkster. (Sometimes I, a bit embarrassly, just find them "cute", too, or at least appealingly compact.)
Mod
Haven't ventured into the e-reader world yet. I'm curious, but not curious enough to spend the money on it...yet.
I do like audiobooks for long car rides, but not for fiction; I lose focus and miss plot points too easily when I'm listening to a book. Nonfiction is easier to pick up even if I've missed a bit and don't feel like rewinding.
I forgot audio books. I have several including all but the first 3 Dresden novels.Candiss, I have some pretty old book club editions. I know of one off hand (an omnibus of the Riddle of the StarsRiddle of Stars) That I got back in 79 or 80. That makes it about 30 years old and still holding together... But, book club editions aren't worth anything if you want to sell or trade them. You're right for some reason no one will take them (except in a few rare cases). But, I was in book clubs for a long time and still have a lot of the books.
I prefer publishers' edition hardcovers for the durability -- I'm one of those people who will literally read a paperback (even a trade paperback) to pieces over the years, even though I'm careful enough that after my first reading you can barely tell I've opened the book. Plus I like having the larger cover art and book descriptions, and the ability to leave the jacket on the shelf so it doesn't get damaged while I read it.I tend to only read in my reading chair or in bed, so the size of hardcovers doesn't bother me.
On the issue of book club editions. . . I'm okay with them if I have the whole series in that edition (like my Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars books) but they are still flimsier than the publisher's editions; I read my parents' book club editions of The Dragonriders of Pern and The Foundation Trilogy into the ground within a decade of discovering the books. :)
I don't read Hardcover books unless I have no choice. In fact, the biggest reason I got a kindle is so that I could read newly released books I couldn't wait for without having to buy hardcover. I prefer MMPB. I don't mind eBook formats either but I still prefer an actual paper book.Audiobooks are a big favorite of mine. I used to have a boring mindless job where audiobooks were awesome. Helped me get the day by faster but now I have a more active job and can't listen to them as much. I have never had a problem totally immersing myself in an audiobook. And in some cases an audio reader will enhance a book. I tried to read Dracula a few times before I got the audio version and the reader is fantastic. It all depends on the book. The audio for The Lightening Thief was beyond awful. I can't even look at those books without getting mad. And in that case audiobooks are way to influenced by the reader.
Nowadays I lean toward trade paper whenever I can get it -- good reading size, but light enough to carry in my work bag.There's a sort of half-sized hardcover format that comes out sometimes. I, er, have been known to purchase these sometimes just because I like the fit of them in my hands. I read "Mister B Gone" that way even though I'd had no prior interest in buying the book. (Luckily it was pretty good.)
I've got a couple audiobooks I'll listen to over and over during my commute (Pratchett and Gaiman ones, of course) but I'm leery of buying more without being able to preview the voice actor(s), and it's getting too freaking hard to upload them onto my FauxPod now that my computer has become crap.
I don't think I've ever read a proper, published book on my e-reader, unless we're counting things like the Gutenberg.org copy of The Canterbury Tales for study. (The small screen forces me to read carefully, which is good, but it's hard to skim, which is not.)
I forgot the small hardcovers. I got my daughter several Dr. Who books in that format. I haven't seen a lot of books in it though, mostly things like YA or media tie ins.
I think I may have bought "Vittorio the Vampire" by Anne Rice in that format...and then never read it.
Patricia McKillip's books come out in those smaller hardcovers and combined with that size and the beautiful cover art by Kinuko Y. Craft, they are like small works of art. I love them.
I generally prefer trade because that is what I'm used to reading....however, I do check out the bargain bins and those are often hard cover. I don't carry those around as much.I don't really like mass market (my husband's preference) because the print it too small and if it's a thick book I have difficulty holding it. Also, I read is strange places where I was to be able to hold open the book and have my hands free --- mmp don't lend themselves to this method as easily.
I did finally break down and buy a Kindle ---- I really like it for the reading aspect, but I actually miss the process I normally go through of inspecting the whole book (extras in the back, dedication) --- you can still do that, but sometimes it will throw off your syncing ability. I also miss page number :-D I know you see percent read but I really like knowing how many pages are in the book for planning purposes.
As to comfort, paperback is what suits me best, and library-paperbacks especially so - I can bend the spine as much as I like and not feel guilty about it.I've recently got an amazon Kindle, which is supposed to be more travel-friendly than any other book format, and while it is such, I still find it hard to compare my Kindle to an actual book since it's not really...well, an actual book.
Audiobooks are also great, depending on the reader and the situation. Sometimes, when I get physically tired of reading, an audio is my savior. But I wouldn't really prefer that to a written book either. Reading at your own pace and using your own imagination is hardly comparable to having someone else do it for you.
And hardbacks, well they're definitely very neat on your shelf, especially if they come in a series of books, but too heavy and too big to carry around, or even cuddle in bed with. The only hardcovers I own are of pre-ordered books, that I simply couldn't wait enough for their paperback versions to come out.
Another plus for audios. I came down with one of those HORRIBLE colds the day before Christmas (which put a kind of crimp in visiting my son and his in-laws). By Sunday I was pretty much down and miserable in a dark room. But, my daughter had gotten me 3 of my favorite books in audio. So I put them on and when I was able listened...when I missed a bit I just played part of it over again. Up for the first time in 4 days today. Like you, audios won't replace text reads, but they have their place and I enjoy them often.
Sarah wrote: "Reading at your own pace and using your own imagination is hardly comparable to having someone else do it for you."I have to disagree with this. Just because you listen to a book on audio does not mean you are not using your imagination.
Random wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Reading at your own pace and using your own imagination is hardly comparable to having someone else do it for you."I have to disagree with this. Just because you listen to a book o..."
True.
I hadn't meant it quite that unequivocally though. One does activate their imagination when listening to a book, but when it comes to certain aspects of imagining we, as readers (listeners?), are...well, disabled.
That doesn't necessarily lessen the experience though. I only meant there's a slight difference between hearing your own notion of the character's voice or tone of speech, and having someone else "imagine" it for you.
A sentence can be read in many ways, even a well-punctuated one.
Mod
Not this is meant to disparage audiobooks in any way - just putting perspective on the "using imagination" issue.
In most cases I can tell my "imagining" of the book would be quite similar to how the reader interprets it, so I really don't mind audio-books at all.Like Mike said, they have their place, and a well-thought-of, well-earned place in that.
I still have to disagree. A narrator rarely, if ever, overrides my interpretation of a work, or how something is said, emoted, etc. There have been a few times, often with rather poor readers, where I can see they have approached differently than I would have even if I have never seen the text itself.To add to the mix, I don't "hear" the characters when I read text. I can see emphasis, emotion, etc but I never really equate it to an actual voice.
Beyond Reality
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I may be an exception, but I usually prefer paperbacks over hardcovers. So many books in the genre are positively huge, and I just hate to hold those 800+ page hardcovers because they're so heavy! Even though my paperbacks tend to look really beat up after I'm done with them, I prefer the lighter, smaller format.
What about you?