Come On Then if you Think You're Hard Enough...

If you've been paying attention (which I'm sure you have!), you'll know that I'm currently reading John Guy's biography of Mary, Queen of Scots, 'My Heart is My Own'.  This is the first hardback book I've read in a while (hopefully not the last, there are another 28 on the list!) and having one playing such a big part in my life has made me think about the plight of the format.

 People have been worrying quite a lot about hardbacks in recent years.  Although paperbacks are only about 80 years old and ebooks much less than that, their lower price and convenience means that readers have switched to them in droves.  For example, 78% of my unread books are paperbacks, 16% ebooks and a rather sad little 6% hardbacks.

The change is completely understandable really.  As someone who reads a lot on the go, at lunchtimes, on buses, while waiting for Prince Charming to fill the car with petrol, it's a real nuisance having to lug a great tome around with me.  The other day, I actually found myself thinking how much easier it would be if my 'My Heart is My Own' was on wheels!  It's much easier to shove an e-reader or paperback in my bag than heave a hardback around with me.

Also, a writer's latest may come out first in hardback, but you end up paying quite a premium to be one of the first people to read it, perhaps £20 compared to a paperback's £8.99.  And for someone like me with plenty of other things to read, it certainly makes more sense to wait for the paperback!

It does worry me, though, that cheap books are disposable books.  There is still a thrill to buying or receiving a hardback that you don't get with other formats.  Because they've been around for so long and I've seen so many shelves of them in stately homes and National Trust properties, they somehow feel grander.  Protected by a beautifully designed dust jacket, it's hard not to feel that a hardback is something special, something precious.  I wonder if when an author imagines their book in print whether a hardback is what they see.

Despite its two big problems, however, it looks like the hardback is finding its niche.  As well as publishers such as Penguin producing some really lovely special edition hardbacks of classic books, collectors' items waiting to be cherished, there's the annual flood of hardbacks for Christmas.  Often including fast-buck celebrity biographies, they're almost the other end of the literary spectrum, but they make great gifts and because of the quality associated with the hardback, receiving one can feel more special than getting a paperback.

So, in their own way, hardbacks are fighting back.  Perhaps they'll become like vinyl, the preserve of a certain type of connoisseur.  Although I'm not sure we'll ever hear anyone say "Everything reads better in hardback"!

Now, back to Her Majesty, the Queen of Scots..!