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Are all books created equal? Quality question...

15 years ago

Hmmmph. I looked at the book about Christian the lion today at WalMart. It's a small book. I didn't like the FEEL of the book, it was bound so tightly it felt like I would be breaking the spine to even open it enough to read. Does that bother anyone else? Do books come in different quality grades? I didn't like the paper they used, either. Will this book be the same at Barnes and Noble, too? Or any other book store? I know back when I was in a book club, the books I got from them were not the same as the ones in the stores. I wondered if they print them differently for different stores?

It might not be as stupid a question as I think- fabric quality is different from store to store. Quilt shops carry fabric that is much nicer than your fabric shop/hobby shop/WalMart type store. Truly, it's documented. Same designer, same pattern, different grade of cotton, different grade of ink/dye.

Same with books or no?

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Comments (6)

stargazzer
15 years ago
the only difference that I know if is there are library editions and regular. If it is a child's book it may be made stronger and that is what you are feeling.
FlamingO in AR
Original Author
15 years ago
I don't think it's a child's book, though, Stargazzer. It's more like a documentary in print. I'm telling ya, it was STIFF! Like, making cracky noises when I opened it up a bit.
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quilly
15 years ago
Unfortunately it seems that many books are now printed on low quality paper and inferior binding. The book was originally published in 1971 and the publishers might have rushed the title back into print in order to capitalize on the current publicity. The book is probably the same whether you buy it at Walmart or Barnes and Noble. In fact if you check the website you'll probably be able to compare them.
stargazzer
15 years ago
I have a few books that I really like and have read one set 4 times. The spine is breaking on it and the company didn't have it in print anymore or they would have replaced it.
mylab123
15 years ago
I have paperbacks my parents had that date back to the 50's and haven't broken down yet, but I have new paperbacks which break down and have pages comeing out after the second read. For SURE they aren't made as well as they used to be made and I'm sure that some are worse than others. The same goes with hard back books, they used to be made much better - I have old hardbacks that must be 50 years old now and are in fine shape except for some yellowing of pages. However, the hardbacks I buy now will never last that long or for as many repeated readings.

Nothing is made as well as it used to be made and that WalMart book sounds like it was made like trash - read and toss. It's a real shame.
marlingardener
15 years ago
Besides the poor production quality of books, has anyone noticed the misspellings and grammatical mistakes in books?
I was reading a book about the Founding Fathers by a Pulitzer Prize winning author, and was surprised to find grammatical mistakes and misspellings in it. This was not a cheap book, but a hardbound from our local library. Perhaps it is because publishers are using Spellcheck rather than humans to proofread books. The software is nice, but doesn't catch everything the way a human eye can. Of course, the human eye needs to be educated . . . .

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