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> The point is that the paperback can sit on a shelf for 100 years be readable. Some can, most can’t. I’ve got a Bantam paperback copy of Moby Dick from 1985.
by sammalloy 4y ago
> The point is that the paperback can sit on a shelf for 100 years be readable.
Some can, most can’t. I’ve got a Bantam paperback copy of Moby Dick from 1985. It’s pretty much on its last legs. The pages are disintegrating and turning golden yellow, but the binding is still intact. Not sure if it will last another 63 years or so.
- QuarterReptile 4y agoYou'll have to treat this as a bread crumb, lacking sources as I do, but I believe that the nadir of printing quality was in the mid 1900s, when rapidly decaying mass paperbacks were on the market. I think that particular strain of bad quality left the market. OTOH, I have a full set of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica that is entirely readable and mostly in good condition, with nothing except gentle handling, regular dusting, and infrequent treatment of the leather binding to prevent red rot (because I don't read them frequently enough to prevent the condition with oil from my skin). Edit: it wasn't hard to find a page discussing the phenomenon of acidic paperbacks: https://library.uoregon.edu/catdept/presbind/brittle https://library.uoregon.edu/catdept/presbind/brittle