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Hardback vs paperback


Maureen

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I love the look and feel of hardback books, but when it comes to taking a book along with me, a paperback is far easier. If it's a book I plan on keeping, or getting signed, then I try to get a hardback whenever possible, but I do have some autographed paperbacks too.

 

At the moment, I'm reading one of each, as my hardback really IS a hefty one...

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I am currently reading a hardback, and hate the lack of flexibility it gives me. It is hard to carry around, makes my left hand (which I had hurt years back) ache, and is a bit difficult for reading in the bath. However hardbacks look lovely in a bookcase.

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Hardbacks look nice on the shelf, but I tend to go for paperbacks. I find them easier to read and they're not as heavy or as awkward to carry around. Although, it is nice to have a read of a hardback every now and then, like I am at the moment.

 

There was one book, though, where I bought both types. It was the Monty Python autobiography. I bought the hardback of it because it had photographs on every page which was great to go through and look at. I then bought the paperback of it so that I could read it and take it around with me - the paperback only had a few photographs in it. The hardback would have been too much of a hassle to read from.

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Liz said

Hardbacks look nice on the shelf, but I tend to go for paperbacks. I find them easier to read and they're not as heavy or as awkward to carry around

 

I agree! Favourite books are nice to have in hardback, as they are intrinsically better quality, but to be honest, I can't afford them very often. So it has to be a paperback.

(I think there's a terrible spelling mistake there but I can't reach the dictionary...?)

 

PP

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I've just been to dig out Anthony Burgess' Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939 because this thread reminded me of something he says in his introduction when attempting to define what a novel is. With regard to it's actual, physical appearance, he describes the novel as:

 

 

 

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My hands are too small to read hardbacks comfortably!

 

Awwhhhh, *cute*!

 

I *love* hardbacks! To me they are a real book. Love the feel of them resting in my hands or tucked under one arm. The weight of them being lugged around in my bag. (Bliss!!) Makes me feel so special and important when I hold one. Sadly I am not, my head is full of dreams and grandiose notions and my bookshelves of paperbacks!! I own but few hardbacks. :D

 

ps: I know an elderly lady, an avid reader whose hands are twisted with arthritis. For Christmas a friend bought her a reading rest. It's a little striped canvas deck chair which holds her book in place whilst she reads.

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Awwhhhh, *cute*!

 

I *love* hardbacks! To me they are a real book. Love the feel of them resting in my hands or tucked under one arm. The weight of them being lugged around in my bag. (Bliss!!) Makes me feel so special and important when I hold one. Sadly I am not, my head is full of dreams and grandiose notions and my bookshelves of paperbacks!! I own but few hardbacks. :D

 

Gosh what a lovely description!

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Trish said

I *love* hardbacks! To me they are a real book. Love the feel of them resting in my hands or tucked under one arm. The weight of them being lugged around in my bag. (Bliss!!) Makes me feel so special and important when I hold one. Sadly I am not, my head is full of dreams and grandiose notions and my bookshelves of paperbacks!! I own but few hardbacks. :D

Hey... you are allowed to have grandiose notions and dreams, just like everyone else. You should write...like Louise says , it was a lovely description!

PP:)

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I am rather fond of hardbacks as Precious Things, but I only have about 6 I think. I only really get them as gifts or as a very rare indulgent treat. The vast majority are all paperbacks (and believe me, it's vast, lol).

 

Hardbacks can be a bit cumbersome 'tho: Alan Bennet said that one of his readers told him that reading the hardback version of Untold Stories in bed was like being trapped under a cupboard! :D

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I love the feel, and look of hardbacks too, although of course paperbacks are more portable if I'm reading when travelling (or for my rucksack when i was a student) een though they do get wrecked that way (then so do hardbacks).

 

Having said that I think most of my fiction collection is paperback and most of my textbooks are hardback becasue that is just the way it worked out. Lot's of textbooks are only available in hardback, and I have a few folio textbooks too.

 

The exceptions to my paperback fiction collecton (she says carefully, thinking that her books are still in boxes and therefore she cannot see the shelves) are a few folios and my recent Harry Potters. I definitely plan to replace my HP paperback with adult hardbacks to match the recent ones.

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I definitely plan to replace my HP paperback with adult hardbacks to match the recent ones.
I plan on doing the exact same thing. I managed to get the adult hardback of Half Blood Prince & want to get them all like that so they match - LOL!
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