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May 11, 2005
The English are barbarians
Librarian rant:
I have noticed that British publishers, including even the OUP, have taken to publishing "hardcover" books that are not, in fact, what a knowledgeable American reader would call hardbound. Instead of the stitched binding of American hardcovers -- even of mass-market hardcovers of the pulpiest variety -- they have glued bindings familiar from book club editions. University press books! (I haven't seen a new Cambridge UP book recently, maybe they've retained their sanity.)
These do not work. Any regular use will cause the spine to give, turning the book into two pieces held together by the cover. Even a mass-market paperback is more sturdy, because at least the cover is glued to the spine. I'm a little overly sensitive because in the South it's worse. The heat and humidity make glue a worse binding material than usual. I guess that's not a problem in Britain, but surely people read the damned things!
What really bugs me is that the Brits are big on acid-free paper. Great, so you have a loose collection of pages that won't decay. Maybe they have an ownership stake in the rebinding industry.
Posted by Mac Thomason at May 11, 2005 05:16 PM
Comments
LIBRARIANS UNITE!
Posted by: linkmeister's mom at May 12, 2005 02:44 PM