Daily News Item 2026-02-06 11:18

For the New York Times, Elizabeth A. Harris considers the fate of the mass market paperback, the inexpensively-bound editions that have found their readers in train stations and airports, supermarket aisles and drug stores since the 1930s. In spite of its appeal, the form is endangered: “Sales have dropped for years, peeled away by e-books, digital audiobooks and even more expensive formats like hardcovers and trade paperbacks, the mass market’s larger and pricier cousin.” With only “about a 30 cent difference” in cost between printing a mass market edition versus a trade paperback—but a much higher potential retail price—publishers are shifting gears. Still, the form has enduring fans. Paula Rabinowitz, author of a cultural history of the mass market paperback, sees inspiration in its design: “It was one of the most brilliant technologies in the history of the world, precisely because you could shove it in your purse or your pocket.”