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Tiny Books Fit in One Hand. Will They Change the Way We Read? (nytimes.com)
Several readers have shared a report about publishing industry's new gamble to drive people to buy physical copies of books: making the books much tinier. From the report: As a physical object and a feat of technology, the printed book is hard to improve upon. Apart from minor cosmetic tweaks, the form has barely evolved since the codex first arose as an appealing alternative to scrolls around 2,000 years ago. So when Julie Strauss-Gabel, the president and publisher of Dutton Books for Young Readers, discovered "dwarsliggers" -- tiny, pocket-size, horizontal flipbacks that have become a wildly popular print format in the Netherlands -- it felt like a revelation. "I saw it and I was like, boom," she said. "I started a mission to figure out how we could do that here." This month, Dutton, which is part of Penguin Random House, began releasing its first batch of mini books, with four reissued novels by the best-selling young-adult novelist John Green. The tiny editions are the size of a cellphone and no thicker than your thumb, with paper as thin as onion skin. They can be read with one hand -- the text flows horizontally, and you can flip the pages upward, like swiping a smartphone. It's a bold experiment that, if successful, could reshape the publishing landscape and perhaps even change the way people read. Next year, Penguin Young Readers plans to release more minis, and if readers find the format appealing, other publishers may follow suit.
I would be constantly turning the page. I don't see the benefit for most people. Onionskin is not easy to turn, tears too easily... so many problems with this.
Put it to market and see what happens. Just because I don't like the idea and won't get a benefit doesn't mean it won't work for someone else.
I would need MAGNIFICATION to read a "tiny" book, as would most people over 50.
No Computers, tablets, and cell phones have though.
They can be read with one hand -- the text flows horizontally, and you can flip the pages upward, like swiping a smartphone.
Not at all like a regular book, which can be read with one hand, the text flows vertically, and you can flip the pages sideways, like swiping a smartphone. Oh, wait...
eBooks will change the way we store books, but tiny little books won't do much of anything, if pocket Bibles/Korans/Wildlife Guides/etc haven't already.
Alas, as long as people cater to quaint historical customs like making books out of paper, not much will change in the big picture....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Politician: "What good are tiny, one-hand books?"
Printer engineer: "Senator, in 20 years, you will be having an impulse to censor them."
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
how about an electronic version of a book that I can read on my phone screen? I'm going to make a million bucks!
"dwarsliggers" -- tiny, pocket-size, horizontal flipbacks that have become a wildly popular print format in the Netherlands
Wildly popular? I've never seen these "in the wild', only a couple in bookstores. And online bookstores seem to push these.
I like the name though. Dwars means across, and dwarsligger means either a crosstie (supporting train tracks) or an obstinate or obstructive person.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
I find it frustrating how many books I can only find as trade paperbacks rather than mass market paperbacks. They are less convenient and more expensive. The ability to shove a book in my back pocket is a big factor in whether I have it with me. Front pocket might be a nice improvement, I'd have to try it out, although the thin paper makes it sound like it will be sold at a premium.
It's not surprising they're starting with novelty books. We're not encouraging reading books that thought leaders read and write. Just another way to get the latest rendition of the manic pixie archetype.
The only issue with eReaders is that you're essentially renting the books. If ownership were protected then they would be more compelling.
Owning physical books is more of a thing for show. And with young people having less and less space, it makes sense they'd want smaller books so they can show off the same collection but retain more space for other things.
The real issue is quantity over quality. Read better books and give them to charity or resell them on Amazon when you're done. Or use a library. Then space isn't an issue.
Work Safe Porn
are:
1) It's less messy than having authors sign tablets.
2) When the power fails for a few days, paper books still work if you have sunlight, or a lamp or flashlight.
3) You probably don't want to swat bugs with a tablet or phone.
4) You can't store as much booty in a hallowed out tablet.
This was done previous with Armed_Services_Editions, meant to provide compact books for soldiers in WWII.
An interesting idea but I don't see this enticing many people away from the traditional paperback form factor which is already a nice size.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
For one thing you can't touch the pages. The filament tissue is too delicate.
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Another form factor that doesn't fit any traditional slot or pocket in my laptop bag, day pack, or pockets. I'll pass and keep the thing that brought that into my handy all-in-one device already. This is a gimmick from a publisher who isn't killing enough trees to support their legacy business.
perfect for traveling i'd think, for camping, rvs, or any time weight and bulk are issues. i often have several hardcovers stuffed in a beach bag and they do crowd things. i'd grab these instead for sure.
- js.
In a sense using a scrolling model kinda reverts us to something modern books replaced around 2,000 years ago.
Solomon was right: History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.
This just seems like another gimmick to inflate the price. This book actually uses less resources to make than a standard paperback, so you'd think it should cost less, right? But no, it costs more!
"The mini versions of Mr. Green’s novels — “Looking for Alaska,” “An Abundance of Katherines,” “Paper Towns” and “The Fault in Our Stars” — will be sold for $12 each,"
Take 'The Fault in Our Stars' which they are offering in this tiny less-expensive-to-make format for $12!! What a deal! The hardback is currently about $12, the paperback about $7.50 and the kindle format is $10. So basically a hardback price with a paperback production cost.
Seriously, why do I need hardcopy when I can read eBooks on my oversized iPhone with Kobo? It's always on me, and I've been reading my books this way for years. My iPhone 8 Plus screen is about what I'd have in a paperback (which, by the way, isn't much different from the OP's flip book idea)
From Wikipedia:
A mass-market paperback is a small, usually non-illustrated, inexpensive bookbinding format. This includes the U.K. A-format books of 110 mm x 178 mm (4.3 in x 7.0 in) and the U.S. "pocketbook" format books of a similar size.
That gives an area of 30 square inches. From TFA:
Picador released mini books by Denis Johnson, Jeffrey Eugenides, Hermann Hesse and Marilynne Robinson -- the tiny editions are 5 13/16 inches tall by 3 11/16 inches wide -- to celebrate the imprintâ(TM)s 20th anniversary.
That is 21.4 square inches. So it's 1/3 smaller than a current small paperback. Possibly useful, but not revolutionary.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Bold experiment at least 70 years old. I grew up in the 80s with one of these in the house:
https://www.amazon.com/Christi...
I'm sure there's examples going back to the middle ages and probably even ancient Greece if they survived that long.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
1) As you get older, you need more light to read and you have problems with smaller print. Even my eagle eyed brother had to get glasses eventually after 40+ years of being, as I said, eagle eyed.
2) Young people don't buy physical media of any kind.
So the smaller books would require younger and better eyes to read them but young people don't buy physical media. Not going to work.
When you have pages that thin, you can tear them too easily. And you can forget taking any notes in them with pencils/pens/highlighters.
If anything, these type of books are much more about disposability than longevity.
At least if it is for people with tiny hands our President might start to read something.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Ah, by "the text flows horizontally" you mean it's printed in landscape mode. Got it.
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
If I read at home I prefer the larger form factor of a book. If I read on the go, thereâ(TM)s no way Iâ(TM)ll have a book with me anyway. Iâ(TM)ll just use kindle.
they are about the size of a paperback. All they've done is turn it sideways.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
I'm confused. Exactly which problem with books do these new high-tech horizontal books solve? Is there someone out there who is having a problem with a normal book?
If publishers want to do something useful, they could start by publishing the regular pocket-book editions of really good books instead of forcing the over-priced, over-sized "trade paperback" onto us for any title that has even a tiny bit of prestige. When I was in college, I could find very nice editions of Henry Miller, D.H. Lawrence, Nabokov, etc etc in pocket book size paperbacks. Now, all those same titles are in a book three times as big and twenty times more expensive. Give me a book I can slip into a pocket when I go to the beach. We had them 30 years ago, so why not now?
You are welcome on my lawn.
From what I saw in the video portion the text size is comparable to paperbacks now. And I think that format would make them easier to read when sitting down, like on public transportation or a waiting room.
The size makes them fit into a jacket pocket or purse. And there's something so nice about having an actual book in your hand.
The downside is that publishers will price them so high that no one will buy them and then declare that they're a failure because sales are low.
I'm still salty about ebooks costing more than paperbacks and darn near as much as hardcovers. Another passive way to slow adoption of them by the market.
http://technovelgy.com/ct/cont...
"Before I go, I've a gift for you, something I came across in packing." He put an object on the table between them -- black, oblong, no larger than the end of Paul's thumb.
Paul looked at it. Yueh noted how the boy did not reach for it, and thought: How cautious he is.
"It's a very old Orange Catholic Bible made for space travelers. Not a filmbook, but actually printed on filament paper. It has its own magnifier and electrostatic charge system."
He picked it up, demonstrated. "The book is held closed by the charge, which forces against spring-locked covers. You press the edge -- thus, and the pages you've selected repel each other and the book opens."
"It's so small."
"But it has eighteen hundred pages. You press the edge -- thus, and so . . . and the charge moves ahead one page at a time as you read. Never touch the actual pages with your fingers. The filament tissue is too delicate." He closed the book, handed it to Paul. "Try it."
From Dune, by Frank Herbert.
Published by Putnam in 1965
Additional resources -
You've invented the mass-market paperback!
Took a look. Ultra thin paper, portions of text jammed right up against the binding, requiring the spine be broken to read the text immediately above and below it, and the weird landscape-format... just a whole big bowl fulla NO.
A seemingly neat idea, but not for me. Yuck. No. Hopefully this is a fad that will die off quickly, rather than end up everywhere.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
Actually, (sorry,) just thought of something. Why not write it on a continuous scroll, doing away with the problem of words being at or near the binding? Then you just slowly wind it around and... but what would you do with the part you already READ?
I suppose you could just make it so you can tear off the part you've already read, and throw it away.
Of course, that would be kinda wasteful. Maybe the paper could be thin but have a second use before being tossed out.
Actually, come to think of it, the answer is already here, and we've been wiping our asses with it the whole time!
Just print books onto rolls of toilet paper! You tear off part, read it, and then when you're done, you can wipe your ass with it! Or blow your nose into it... or whatever you do with it. Then you know as long as you've got toilet paper, you have reading material for the bathroom, AND vice-versa!
Is anyone already doing this?!? If not, they should be!
This seems like a brilliant if potentially doomed idea... when someone comes along and invents a new way to clean your butthole involving a little shelf and three seashells sitting on it, there goes the market for toilet-books.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
It would be called "Kindle" and you could use it to read most books on a smartphone. With its settable font and type size and its white-on-black mode, it's a lot more readable than most people think.
I'm so glad the other trivial problems with books are now all solved.
By which I mean
(1) Books not laying flat and open on a tabletop at the page one wishes to read while doing other things with the hands, and
(2) bad binding that comes apart or crumbles after a couple of months and/or a couple of readings (library books).
Look, I absolutely love paper books, and prefer them to reading on a screen. But with the above in mind, it's touch and go.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.