Posted on 09/18/2020 3:50:56 PM PDT by Fai Mao
That they’re easy to carry, often pocket-perfect and lightweight, inexpensive (or relatively so), and sold in drugstores, airport arcades, supermarkets, and many other venues outside the hallowed precincts of the glorious bookstore does not make them less worthy of a good life as a book. Many old and battered paperbacks are treasured by their owners, for content they can’t replace in another edition or for pure sentimental attachment. Who among us hasn’t got paperbacks that we can’t part with, even as we wonder what we can do to keep them going?
Paperbacks’ chief fault lies in the often low-grade (inexpensive) components that make them harder to preserve.
(Excerpt) Read more at biblio.com ...
“Who among us hasn’t got paperbacks that we can’t part with,”
My Louie L’amour paperback collection is gold.
Their content cannot be banned by AI or edited in real time based on the demands of those in power. Sharing printed books is more private and harder to censor than social media and file sharing.
Remember the Soviet Union. Certain old pre-revolutionary books were very, very hard to get (Dostoyevsky’s “The Possessed”, for example). (Not to mention bibles. )
I’m sure similar censorship/burning of American titles will be in the works if Team Biden/Harris wins the election.
Back in the day, paperback books were printed on cheap wood pulp paper, hence the name: "Pulp Fiction." Fine books (and 18th & early 19th Century newspapers) were printed on rag paper. Paper made from cloth rags.
“Their content cannot be banned by AI or edited in real time based on the demands of those in power. Sharing printed books is more private and harder to censor than social media and file sharing.”
And, they don’t require a computer or other electronic device except a light bulb to use.
Pull one out (L’Amour)now and then. Most say 95 cents. Rereading them now I realize how much the shaped my view of life.
Yes sir, duty, honor, manly responsibility. . .great stories of good men and strong women.
The problem is, after long term storage, the print shrinks.
True.
L’Amour “Last of the Breed” is one of my all time favorites. Too bad he never got to finish the second part of the story.
I wonder if this would cure my allergies. I read these old books and I get all plugged up in the nose and they make me feel kind of sick. I used to love to go to the secondhand store and buy paper back books for $.25 but then I couldn’t do it anymore because I was just too allergic.
Been collecting old paperbacks since I was a kid and I am 58 now.
Carter Brown series
Doc Savage series
Michael Shayne series
and many more.
Big fan of old mysteries.
I am getting p.o’d because a lot of physical books are being printed in China these days, at least those with illustrations.
Adding books to the list of things to buy old and used whenever possible.
Amen!Amen!Amen!
Louis L’Amour was always awesome. The Sackett Series profoundly influenced my views and the way I conduct myself. I read them about 40 years ago, and they are a treasured part of my book collection. My other hero, Tom Landry, was also a big Louis L’Amour fan, and was quoted as telling him, “Louis, just write!”
Ahh another aficionado huh? My uncle got me into LL many years ago, and I STILL bring one when I travel to read on the airplane. Especially when my travels bring me to the Great Southwest. LL was a master at painting the "word picture". Even tho the books are all quite similar; ie pretty gal in trouble, farm almost lost, bad guys all around, good guy rides in, kills bad guys and they live happily ever after, I still enjoy them, and have read most more than once, some several times.
Hey, what's wrong with that? I wish life was so uncomplicated right?
BTW, Tom Selleck and that guy from "The Ranch" are the BEST movie cowboys since JW, IMHO.
Ride on, and watch yer back trail my friend...
Exactly the reason I luv his books. . .predictable but with a way with words.
Ride for the brand, one of the best lesson’s on being a honorable man.
JW was an icon and always will be. Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott as Sacketts. . .the best.
A side note: Was at Disney 15-yrs ago on a weekend, on the MGM park, Disney had a walking tour of the back offices where animators supposedly worked. Weekend so no animators working. We saw the desks and were separated from the animator desks and such by glass. They had a life-sized poster of John Wayne from Hondo, his iconic pose—walking and holding his rifle. . .then I saw an animator had blacked out one of his front teeth!
Seriously, I was stunned and angry, and in our group were many foreign visitors and many of them were angry as well.
I reported this to customer service, insisting to speak with a boss. . .supposedly they sent a boss out to speak with me. I explained what I saw and how offensive it was and he was like “meh. . .who cares.”
Got the COE’s address and mailed him. Could have been a dead box to divert unwanted mail. Nothing heard.
I hate Disney.
Gold. . .pure gold all these old books.
With you on everything, and the Sacketts is a true treasure. .
they're erasing history....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.