Paper Wrappers

[pasithea]

So, I went to the post office this morning to pick up my book which they hadn't brought back to the post office last night. Finally, I can open it and comment on it with or without smugness.

I spent $20 on eBay for a copy of The Illusion of Life not bad. There are three things wrong with the book. 1) A small scuff on the paper cover in the top right corner, a black marker stripe on the ends of the page at the top of the book, and most unsightly of all, a 1.5" square '101 Dalmations' (the TV series) sticker on the front page. The scuff and marker line I couldn't care less about but.... Ugly TV animation in an unremovable spot. Ugh. Ohwell. At least it wasn't Disney Hercules, or one of their newer, uglier shows, I guess.

Anyhow, that gets me thinking about an absurdity of america.. The paper sleeve on books. I don't care for them. I often remove them. I feel like they're like the wrapper on candy. It's puzzling to me that so much of the (monetary) value of a book seems tied up in this feature of the book. Why? They're often gaudy (this one is quite gaudy although the book beneath is bright blue and thus not much better) Nowdays, 'expensive' books are wrapped in plastic to protect the paper cover. Crazy! The cover is to protect the pages, the paper cover is to protect the hardcover before sale, and now plastic wrap to protect the paper. Guh. Just ditch the sleeves! You don't buy candy to look at the wrapper.

Comments

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

I've ditched the "dust jackets" on many of my books. I think they look better without them, especially when you have an entire series of books, like the History of Middle Earth, the dust jackets changed designs several times throughout the series, but the books themselves are all black with gold lettering.

And I've never understood why they're called "dust jackets". All the dust collects on the top of the book, how does a paper sleeve around the sides keep the dust off?

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

http://www.bookologist.com/cab/abu/y203/m04/bk0002/s03

So apparently, a Dust Cover was ment to keep the pages free from dust before you got it home to a safer place, especially for loose leaf books.

Their use nowdays, with modern printing methods, is just purely decerative, but collectors, as we all know, are crazy. ;'D

[cargoweasel.livejournal.com]

I will discard or set aside dust jackets without a second thought on a typical book. They are kept in the case of first editions and collection copies because it means scarcity -- just like condition is so crucial with comic books and the hang tag is so crucial with beanie babies.

a beany baby without the tag is much more common than one with the tag thus the tags increase the value. The same thing with a dust jacket on a hardcover book. It just has to do with how scarce something is.

If a book was cheap at the used bookstore it's because it has no dust jacket. So for reading copies sure it's great. It actually makes used books cheaper for those who don't care about the jackets.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Well... except to the cover of the special movie edition of the Hobbit. That was cool.

[centauress.livejournal.com]

I end up with books which aren't labeled under the jacket.

I hate that.