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  • Category: Books
    Points:5

      

    Hardcover or paper backs - which is your favourite type of book?

    At the start of this year, we had given the topic of books for the monthly TOW and both in that reward program and in some earlier forum discussions, some of you had expressed your preference for reading an actual book rather than an online one or one that is downloaded and read later.

    Now let's talk about the type of the physical book in hand. Do you like the firmness and strength of a hardcover book? Or do you prefer the nice soft feel of a paperback? The latter has the advantage of being easy to hold and really convenient when you love reclining and reading. The former is a little difficult to hold and tires the hands.

    Let's discuss the other pros and cons in hardcover and paperback and what is your preference.
  • #704819

    Points:5
    A hardcover book will be costlier than a paperback book.
    The shelf life of hardcover book will be more than a paperback book
    Handling a paperback book is easy than a hardcover book.
    It is always advisable to have hardcover book if it is a reference book and we may using it many times for reference purpose. For example, if you take a dictionary, the hardcover book will be good. The quality will be good and it can be used for many days and there will not be any damage.
    If it is a novel or weekly I prefer a paperback. Once we read it we may not be required to read again and again and we may not even keep it our library. They can be easily held in our hand and read easily.
    When we go for travel if we want to carry a book for reading during the travel we should go for a paperback book so that weight will not be very high and we can easily carry with us.
    drrao
    always confident

  • #704875

    Points:4
    I would like to take a hardcover book instead of paperback book. A hardcover book will remain long and can be used for for a long time but a paperback book can be destroyed easily. So, if you are purchasing a reference book for a long time you should prefer a hardcover book. But if you are purchasing a book for only a one-time reading then you can purchase a paperback book. The paperback book is cheaper than the hardcover book.

    So, generally, it depends on the purpose and types of books and I will select a book accordingly.
    Honesty is the best policy.

  • #704884

      

    Points:4
    I definitely prefer the paperback ones. Most of the novels and the other books that I have are paperbacks. Not only cheaper, but they are easy to handle and look good to. I don't carry my books though. I handle each one of them with care. I in fact treasure my book collection. Will like to make it bigger. I don't enjoy reading e-books. The feel of the book in hand and reading it at leisure, on the chair or bed, is the most pleasurable of activities. And yes, it should be paperback only. I do have some hardbacks too but they are the big ones, encyclopedias type. Ironically, ISC takes a lot of my time and I get very little time to read the books. But I still manage, whenever I get time. These days, reading the Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku. Again, it's a paperback.
    Patience and perseverance pays

  • #704885

    Points:4
    I love reading and so I have a lot of books and novels. Whenever I buy a book my first choice is a hard-covered book.

    I understand all the great benefits of a hard cover book -

    The first and most important advantage is that they are strong and the quality of their pages is also very good.
    I love my books very much and I like to read them again and again, so if I keep them for years, then hard paper books are the best for me, which can be kept for long time. .........

    And there is also one more thing about their looks, which makes actually mater for some readers.

  • #704886

      

    Points:2
    Swati, nice to know about your reasons to prefer the hardbacks, but I think the covers of paperbacks (novels) look better than the hardbacks. Moreover, since I maintain my books with utmost care, there are no issue with their longevity. A few of them are from my college days.
    Patience and perseverance pays

  • #704892

    Points:4
    Both the variants are acceptable but while purchasing, we would like to the frequency of the usages. Suppose, it is a dictionary used very frequently and hence it requires hard cover to improve its shell life and similarly any book related to a technology, Homoeopathic Materia Medica or any text books used in the multiple ways in a day would require a hard cover to prolong the lives of such books. Paper back edition are convenient to use and because of its less weight, it can be carried conveniently and such books can enjoyed any where due to its carry over due to lesser weight. Novels of the noted writers, compilation of stories form such categories and they are our companion in the leisure hours.

  • #704893

    Points:5
    For me, I prefer the firmness and strength of a hardcover book than the nice soft feel of a paperback. During our time, we had the hardcover notebooks and paperback textbooks. It was easy to manage the notebooks but our textbooks would get damaged very fast. By the mid-tern gets over, the shape of the textbook would be like we have to buy a new one but our notebooks would be in pretty good shape. Apart from this, we used the hardcover notebook to play during our recess time i.e. bat-ball( using a paper ball), it was easy to carry i.e can easily balance other things on top of the hardcover notebook. When we reached college, we used the paper to cover long books which were easy to carry but would get damaged very fast. We could fold it while travelling and at the end of the month, one needs to look at the shape of the book, with dogears on every page.
    “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in." — Morrie Schwartz

  • #704898

      

    Points:4
    I prefer paperback books as they are very easy to manage everywhere like while traveling in a local train, even when sitting in a waiting area or anywhere else. You can even carry them easily in your daily bag so that you can finish it soon. Hardcover books are good only if you want to keep them for long because books with paperbacks may get torn in long run and then it required binding and covering. Another important thing is paperback books occupied lesser space in your bookshelf whereas hardcover books occupy more space. In my bookshelf, my son's hardcover encyclopedias, picture books and storybooks are occupying most of the shelves and my books with paperback are just shrinking in the corners.
    Padmini

    Living & Learning- simultaneous processes!

  • #704909

    Points:4
    What I opine that when the book attract us for it sheer content, then the cover or the looks of the pages does not matter. What matters is how many pages the book has and how fast it could be read , understood and completed. Some books have good cover and does not really mention what the content is. Likewise the contents sometimes does not matter to us as we are reading for the pleasure of it and not that seriously to kill the time. So many things are involved in this matter and therefore each one has their own view of reading a book with hard cover or paper back and so on.
    K Mohan
    'Idhuvum Kadandhu Pogum "
    Even this challenging situation would ease

  • #704925

    Points:3
    I agree with a few members related to the usage, but I select the book based on the content which encourages my learning and my interests. If the content is useful for me, I never see whether it is hard to cover or paperback. I see that the book is available at an affordable price and handy too.
    Besides these my hobbies of reading a specific magazine drag me into it, still unaware of the outer cover than the inner beauty.
    Lead the leader

  • #705136

    Points:2
    I am from the period of hardback books and notebooks. It was good. But at a later stage, the hardback used to break and go bad. Now the paperbacks are plastic coated and they last long. They are flexible to open and close the books. Hence, I like paperback books and notebooks than the hardback.
    No life without Sun

  • #705160

    Points:4
    I had a great fascination for hard cover books during my student life and I used to get them from a Govt library for reading. I also observed that the great books of their time that is the classics were generally hard bound and some of them were elegant in their looks and appearances. Then later, when I moved to other place, I switched to the cheaper paperback versions which were available in the private town library as they could not afford to keep the costlier ones for giving to interested people on hire basis. Slowly my fad for the hard cover ones dissolved in the air and now I am much comfortable with the paperbacks and in fact have forgotten about that hard cover things until this thread revived my memories of those elegant ones.
    Knowledge is power.

  • #705220

      

    Points:1
    Some of my favourite hardcover books were the Reader's Digest condensed books. They had these lovely gold etched words in the spine of the book which mentioned the titles of the novels that were within its covers. Many of them also had a ribbon as a bookmark which was really convenient. Since a few of these were not always too heavy, it was easy to hold within the crook of one's hand and read even while lying down.

    Yes, lying down and reading was something I and my sisters did regularly in my school and college days, during the afternoon hours, with a katori of some snacks like chips and chivda to munch on. It was sheer bliss to do this, a nice thriller and snacks, with a feeling of contentment on finishing the read. At such times, paperbacks were more convenient.

    One good think about hardcover books was also the size of the print. I found they generally had larger print than paperbacks, which, when you grow older, definitely is a plus point!
    When you make a commitment, you create hope. When you keep a commitment you create trust! ~ John C. Maxwell

  • #705251

    Points:5
    When renting a book from a library there is no choice as to select the Hard cover edition or paperback edition and I take the book as it is available there. But when I buy a book for keeping it for long time or when I need to refer or read it frequently later, I go for hard cover edition. So I had my Dictionary, Thesaurus and Epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, my subject text books etc in hard cover editions.
    But those which I buy for just reading once and forgetting, I go for low priced paperback editions. To be rank many popular books I had bought in their paperback(may be even pirated ) editions. I used to buy such books from the Dadar WR-CR over bridge in Mumbai. Some of the very popular books use to be available for very low price.(Hence I presume them to be pirated editions)
    Not only that I used to buy many books from the second hand book markets in Matunga-Kingcircle area and Fountain-Churchgate area in Mumbai. While just walking on footpaths, when I see a shop selling second hand books I stop and buy at leat one book. Like that I had bought some unique books from even Dombivili and Pali Hill areas in Mumbai. Similarly I had bought books from Vhennai also. Earlier there used be some buyback price for the second hand books bought from the same vendors.

  • #705291

      

    Points:4
    I remember during my college days, I purchased a rare edition of a particular book from the second-hand book market which was a paperback version. I used to refer to that book frequently and to increase its longevity that book was rebound to a hardcover one. Actually, I have seen that many books do not have both the paperback and hardcover versions so in that case, we do not have any choice. But when I have a choice I decide according to the size of the book. If it is a big one having a lot of pages, I go for the hardcover version otherwise, I prefer the paperback version.
    Sankalan

    "Life is easier when you enjoy what you do"


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