Which format do you find easiest to read? Does the format make a real difference to you?
20 October 2009
How do you like your books?
What I'm really thinking about here is format. There are so many reading options - hardcover, paperback, large print, audio. When it comes to paperback I have a real preference for what we in Australia call the trade paperback.
Which format do you find easiest to read? Does the format make a real difference to you?
Which format do you find easiest to read? Does the format make a real difference to you?
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14 comments:
For my print books I'm definitely a paperback fan but I prefer the smaller ones (what the Americans call mass market paperback). I walk to work (and as many other places as I can) and always carry a book for reading at the coffee stop I reward myself with for walking so prefer small and light. I hate hardbacks because they're heavy to carry and dig into me from my backpack if I don't pack it carefully. I don't read e-formats for leisure because I associate reading on a screen with work.
I am also a huge fan of audio books for all those times when you can't hold a book (while walking, driving, gardening, doing housework) (ok I never do housework)
Softcover for me, unless it's a hard to find reference book, then I need the protection of a hard cover. I've just recently started listening to audio books when I work as a cleaner. I find though my mind tends to wander and i miss entire sections of the book. Need to work on that for sure.
Interesting question, Kerrie! I much prefer paperbacks. The smaller ones are infinitely more portable than the larger ones, and are more cost-effective. They also take up less room, which allows for more room in the TBR bookcase ; ). Like Bernadette, I like to have a book with me, and it's just easier to slip a paperback into a laptop case or suitcase or purse.
Oh I like this question. I'm a mass market paperback fan. I've perfected the art of rocking my babies to sleep holding one. I won't read a hardback if I have a choice as they seem too cumbersome to me.
I'm a big ebook fan too. I like that I can go out and have a stack of books on the one device.
I prefer hard cover or soft cover books. I have yet to try an ebook. Though there's something to be said for holding a book in your hands. Just me.
I prefer paperback because they're lighter, but I do not like those paperbacks that won't open properly - the ones that spring back when you open them so that you can't see the words towards the spine. Nor do I like the paperbacks whose covers curl up when you close the book.
I love the feel of hardbacks and would really prefer those if they're weren't so heavy - thinking of books like Wolf Hall etc, and of course you can't just slip them into a handbag - unless it's a big bag - to take out with you. Small hardbacks are better.
In the end though it all comes down to cost and convenience - so paperbacks it is.
Love my paperbacks fit into a decent size handbag and take up less room in my bookcases. There is something comforting about the smaller books.
Trade paperbacks for me! I love the feel of holding a decent sized book, and not having tiny tiny print - normally anyway!
It is all about weight, size, and font for me.
I quite like small hardbacks [apart from the cost] of about 250 pages but when hardbacks are 500 -600 pages the weight and sheer difficulty of manipulating them is a drag.
What I do find annoying is small print and especially if the paperback is one of those larger efforts and I open it to find a miniscule font.
Small paperbacks, large fonts and world peace would be my ideal.
I wonder if size of font and ease of handling effect prize judges when they have to read a lot of books.
E books don't appeal at all, and I have to concentrate when reading so I haven't tried audio books but as I have several from book bags at Crime Fest I might try them one day.
Overeasy.
Oh, wait, books?!? Oh, okay...um, I guess I'll go with the standard answer: Mass Market Paperbacks. However, once in a while, I like the large Bible on your grandmother's nightstand. ;)
If I were a millionarie, I would buy hardbacks, because they feel good in your hand and often are easier to keep open.
I am not, though, so I buy whatever is cheapest, but I like clear print.
I travel (not necessarily far, though) and hate the weight of hardbacks for that. I also like the larger print of trade paperbacks, but mostly I buy paperbacks. Easy to carry, not too expensive and can be replaced for an equally not too expensive price if ruined ;o)
My last book was a large print hardback from the library and I must confess that it made the reading so easy. I then struggled to jump to my next - a "normal" trade paperback size. I wonder if the days of the hradback have numbered though. Although for libraries they are obviously a winner. I counted about 25 identifying "marks" in the book [ you know the initials and squiggles people put in a library book to indicate to their tired and ageing brains that their eyes have already travelled through it - does the brain engage I wonder] so the library really got their money's worth from that purchase.
I like paperback, but not the mass market kind -- the bigger version, the one that comes out after hardcover, usually. Hardcover is too bulky to carry around, and mass market paperbacks are too small for me to put on the machines at the gym. So trade paperback (I think), it is :)
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