Source.

I’ve known for quite a while that the main reason my book backlog is growing (other than “I keep buying books”) is the same device I draw my cartoons on.

The iPad’s always ready to offer me a quick distracting endorphin hit: check my feeds! watch a BSG video! play one more of the billion Wordle clones out there!

It’s especially bad when I’m reading an e-book on it, what with notifications popping up — few of them worthy of my attention, but all of them stealing it.

Still, I have a few in my queue that I’m really excited about. I just finished Mick Napier’s Improvise. Scene from the inside out, and started Tom Blank’s The Principles of Comedy Improv. Next up in fiction is Lake of Souls, a collection of Ann Leckie’s short stories, and then Samantha Harvey’s Orbital (which I think will be my first time reading a Booker Prize-winner — don’t judge me).

  • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
    1·
    3 days ago

    Honest question: what is the appeal?

    I usually only get them incidentally, but don’t notice a difference other than the book feeling harder.

    • Lightfire228
      2·
      3 days ago
      • They are sturdier and require less delicate handling, lest you damage a paperback’s cover, or accidentally bend some of the pages
        • i always remove the paper graphic covers from HB so i just have the bare cardstock cover
        • this is handy if you need to travel with it, say on vacation, or to / from school or work
      • the spine is a lot sturdier and looser
        • with PB, the spine is just the same paper material as the cover, and it forms creases as you read
        • with PB, the spine is usually really tight, which makes it really hard to lay out the book flat
        • with hardback, the spine is separate from the cover, which lets it flex more easily, and the material that binds the pages is generally more durable to flexing over time

      I should probably note, i mostly read from e-ink tablets these days

      But i still prefer HB over PB if i need / have a physical copy

      • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
        2·
        3 days ago

        That’s some good points. I hadn’t associated a tight spine with paperback, but now that you mention it, I can see it. I hate when you have to tilt a book left and right to read into the dark inner margin (looking at you, Sarum, at over 1000 cramped pages…). Anyway, I think you’ve sold me.

        i always remove the paper graphic covers from HB so i just have the bare cardstock cover

        Yeahhh, I like that too. The paper covers annoy me, actually. So loose, and always sliding around.

        Thank you for taking the time to write that out! :)