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What a Waste!
By anitamckay on 2010-05-06 20:03:27
An open letter to book publishers: I am an avid reader. I'm also something of a bookaholic, and no matter how many
resolutions I make, I find myself in bookstores more often than libraries. It's just too awful to have to take a newfound
friend back to the library after a week or two. Now I see that you have taken it upon yourselves to help support me in my
resolution. I may have to stop buying books. Ninety percent of my books are paperback. I can afford more of them than
hardcovers, and they take up less space. With all the millions and millions of books I have left to read, waiting a year or less
for the paperback copy isn't a burden. The only thing is, what has become of paperbacks? It is almost impossible to find a
regular paperback, other than pop fiction. Everything else has gone to the larger paperback format: same content but bigger
size and price tag. Super size my book? Why? I can't imagine a reason other than for you to make more money. Sad as it
seems, many books do wind up in someone's garbage. In the United States, we already produce almost 4 1/2 pounds of trash
per person per day. Do you have to add to that? Do books have to be like too much else in this country - bigger than they
need to be and wasteful? In additional to the ecology, there's economics to consider. One of the problems underlying the US
economy is that we have paid more and more for items with no higher intrinsic value than the days when we paid less. Are
the new-sized books the equivalent of an overheated housing market as well as a McMansion? If you believe in a free
market economy, offer the same books in two sizes and see which prevails.
