Books

I get it. I became a reader later in life. I now realize that what held me back from reading the most was holding the book. I know it sounds dumb but hard covers are too heavy, and keeping a paperback open at the page was annoying. I read magazines, newspapers and comics without issue, but hard covers and paperbacks I could not handle. Now, with ebooks and a slim e-reader, I read about two to three books a week when I have spare time.

Also, I don't have the bookshelf space for the amount of books I consume.

I read that Atlantic piece and think it has plenty of merit. I suppose that corporate decisions were made that made the paperbacks less attractive, but I still believe much of it comes down to the culture of aversion to reading long form text, preferring instead bite-sized diversions from our phones.

I’m not sure I agree this is making a difference in the recent downturn in literacy scores dating to around 2012. The books available in the drug stores, airports, and grocery stores have been the trash mass appeal types since I remember, but the publishers are still publishing plenty of variety and even if they stopped altogether there are a plethora of interesting books that already exist across the spectrum. I don’t think it makes sense for this to factor significantly into recent shifts.

The decline in bookstores seems a more reasonable guess since that cut off an access point for browsing a good variety. Maybe also the decline of mall culture which probably brought more casual browsers into bookstores than a standalone barnes and noble in a strip mall does.

If I were to look for causes explaining a reduced desire to read among kids I would look at whether parents are reading to kids less or maybe less likely to sign them up for library reading programs, whether districts/teachers are offering less variety of book options for their K-8 classes, whether reading programs at schools or libraries are offering less lucrative prizes or generally encouraging it less than they used to.

affordability, ¢25 (the price of each of Pocket Books’ titles) went a lot further in 1939 than it does now but was still a consumer-friendly price point. It was just slightly higher than what our great-great-grandparents would have paid for a gallon of gas and slightly lower than what they’d have paid for a dozen eggs. In 2024, the format’s last year of full national distribution, a new mass-market paperback would set you back three times as much as a dozen eggs or a gallon of gas.

I really can't justify the price of a new mass market paperback anymore. It's so much for what an inconvenience they are. The font size, spacing, and margins are all small and cramped, and they get so beat up with transport and use, and they're thick so they both take up a lot of space on a bookshelf and don't fit as well in a backpack compared to a slimmer, taller hardcover or trade paperback, both of which tend to be more durable, have larger margins and font sizes and line spacing. It's legitimately a better reading experience, for free, to pirate ebooks and put it on an old cheap used kobo ereader.

I'll still buy books but they have to be nicer than mass-market PPBs, and then I prefer used because of course those are way more expensive new.

killed

Hmm.

Hyperbole? Conspiratorial thinking?

That article was too long to read ;)