3 ms·

Yes, that's a weird thing. Some books seem to be vanity items. But even in that respect, I find the US format weird: all books are dissimilar and are harder to

by Iv 7y ago

Yes, that's a weird thing. Some books seem to be vanity items. But even in that respect, I find the US format weird: all books are dissimilar and are harder to fit in typical furniture. I do prefer the look of this: http://a52.idata.over-blog.com/2/25/73/36/Photos/Bibliotheque/100_1143.JPG http://a52.idata.over-blog.com/2/25/73/36/Photos/Bibliothequ... to the look of this: https://www.archimag.com/sites/archimag.com/files/styles/article/public/web_articles/image/Biblioth%C3%A8queLivres.png https://www.archimag.com/sites/archimag.com/files/styles/art...

barrkel 7y ago
That's comparing books by a single publisher in what looks like a very specific series, with paperbacks from different publishers. The former - the one you prefer - looks institutional to me, like something a hospital or childcare home would buy in bulk, at a discount, to provide reading material for the unfortunate inmates. The latter has a lot more distinctiveness, and is chaotic since the book designs individually try to grab attention, so that they sell themselves in a bookshop. I don't particularly love the result, it's an artifact of how books have been sold over the past century, but it's preferable to the former by some distance. It's far easier to spot a book whose cover you know in the second style.
- Iv 7y ago
  The image I linked, yes, was from a single publisher. Here is one from several different ones: https://a-gilles.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/aef9a82f8a20563b7fb7a6fb1f43d430.jpg https://a-gilles.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/aef9a82f8a20...
jhbadger 7y ago
Penguin used to do that decades ago in the English speaking world -- their paperbacks were all the same with nothing more than the name of the author and the title on an orange background(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Books#/media/File:Image_of_the_cover_of_'The_Tanker_%22Derbent%22',_English_edition.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Books#/media/File:Imag...). But they've moved away from that except for intentionally "retro" editions.

by Iv 7y ago

barrkel 7y ago

That's comparing books by a single publisher in what looks like a very specific series, with paperbacks from different publishers. The former - the one you prefer - looks institutional to me, like something a hospital or childcare home would buy in bulk, at a discount, to provide reading material for the unfortunate inmates. The latter has a lot more distinctiveness, and is chaotic since the book designs individually try to grab attention, so that they sell themselves in a bookshop. I don't particularly love the result, it's an artifact of how books have been sold over the past century, but it's preferable to the former by some distance. It's far easier to spot a book whose cover you know in the second style.

Iv 7y ago
The image I linked, yes, was from a single publisher. Here is one from several different ones: https://a-gilles.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/aef9a82f8a20563b7fb7a6fb1f43d430.jpg https://a-gilles.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/aef9a82f8a20...

jhbadger 7y ago

Penguin used to do that decades ago in the English speaking world -- their paperbacks were all the same with nothing more than the name of the author and the title on an orange background(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Books#/media/File:Image_of_the_cover_of_'The_Tanker_%22Derbent%22',_English_edition.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Books#/media/File:Imag...). But they've moved away from that except for intentionally "retro" editions.