Cheesy Read

Have you seen the new "Easy Read" format for paperback books?

These are paperbacks shaped like mass-market paperbacks, except that they are about an inch taller. They cost two or three bucks more than the equivalent in the standard form. It's not clear what makes them easier to read, although the one that I have read in this format seemed to have larger gullies, which made it slightly easier to hold one-handed. And by "slightly," I mean "microscopically, and certainly not worth the surcharge."

The real annoyance with this new format is that if you're like me, you segregate your paperbacks from your hardcovers, for compactness in shelving, and you often even refrain from buying something in hardcover, because the rest of the works by this author that you own are all in mass-market paperback format.

(Isn't it great how the second person makes this your obsession, and not mine?)

Anyway, this new dreamchild of some suit messes with the system. Don't buy into it.