there was definitely a time when bookstores would sell predominantly mass market paperbacks with trade paperbacks being the exception. I got a kindle in 2011 and my paper book buying dropped sharply, so my bookshelves are full of books I bought before then and they're almost all mass market sized.
replyIt's said that TP quality is better than MMP quality that I disagree. I've frequently bought TPs that fell apart as soon as I opened them. MMPs are standardized and reliable, they have a lot of choices in how they make a TP and often they make the wrong ones.
replySure many MMPs are genre fiction but long long ago... you used to see really serious books like government reports on inner city riots, books by all the players in the Watergate scandal, books about science, shakespeare plays, serious fiction, etc. in that format.
Yeah I have a MMP of the Warren commission report that I bought for 50 cents on a lark…though I also have a different MMP promising details about UFOs :P
replyThe retail side has alot to do with it. Newsstands and small bookstores are mostly done, and Walmart and other stores are mostly shitty evangelical Jesus books.
replyEven airport stores are at least half that crap in many cases.
I suspect this is why downthread I mentioned not remembering Costco selling books. Those kinds of displays so rarely have anything I’d care about that my brain just filtered them out heh.
replyI was at Costco three days ago and the books for sale table which, in years past, spanned much of an aisle, is now down to about a 5x3 ft table offering nothing to my interest.
replyCostco made a decision a few years back that they were going to only sell books as part of their Christmas seasonal offerings.
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