Interesting to witness how the book market is evolving in the digital age. Thanks for posting.

As for myself, I'm just reader, plain and simple, and not a collector. I very seldom ever buy hardback. I usually wait until the books I want to read come out in trade or mass market paperback before I buy them.

I have to add my two cents and say that no, I don't think the hardback will disappear - not in my lifetime. The print is larger in hardbacks, libraries around the world buy hardbacks, and there are many people like me who just prefer to own and hold and read a hardback.

If any of the formats should disappear, I am betting it's the traditionally-sized mass market paperback. They are no longer the cheapies they used to be, they are printed on super cheap paper held together with low-grade glue and printed with teeny tiny type. Not only that, with chain bookstores offereing 40% off of bestseller hardbacks and no discount on paperbacks, the price spread between the two mediums is no longer that great.

PAM

It's a big change, but one that makes sense, I think. Among people I know, the phrase "I'll wait until it comes out in paperback" is pretty common. Now, perhaps, that year of waiting will be over. That's a 'win/win' situation - good for the seller and good for the buyer.
And big name booksellers aren't the only ones who have had to change their marketing strategies for hardcover books. Many small, local used book stores severely limit the number of hardcover books one can bring in to trade. They do that because even as a second hand book at a good price, hardcovers do not sell well. Guess it's time to 'read the hand writing on the wall'.

You are right about the price spread not being all that much if you wait for a book to go on sale, but... I find hardbacks impractical for my lifestyle. I'm an on-the-go type of reader. I hate lugging around hardbacks, and don't have the space or storage for them. If I don't want to keep them, and wish to trade or give them away, they are more expensive to mail and exchange for another book. Even if I donate them to my local library, I feel they don't get used by the library. They simply get put in the library sale pile.

I would be interested in better quality paperbacks for my own personal reading use, though. However, I would add that hardcovers aren't made to hold up the way they used to be, either. I don't find I necessarily get a better bound/quality book when I buy hardcover fiction.

I buy hardbacks quite a bit, new and used. Mass market paperbacks do not hold up to the kind of re-reading I like for favorite books. I do regret that most hardbacks are not as well made as once they were. When I find one that is beautifully crafted, such as the latest edition of Life of Pi, I regard it as a treasure.

This is not to say that I turn my nose up at paperbacks. I buy them, too. It is just that paperbacks are to me ephemeral. If I am preserving a book, I want it to be made to endure.

Rosefolly

I do hope that hardcover books aren't going away. I perfer hardcover books for the books I want to keep and read over again. Paperbacks are fine for reading on a plane or at the beach (or in my case, to read while soaking in the tub!), but they just don't last. Maybe I'm one of a dying breed, but I love to hold a book in my hands, to put it down for a moment while I think about what I've just read, to flip back a few pages to refresh my memory or to skip ahead through a long-winded passage.

Not in my lifetime, I hope. I'm doing my part to keep them coming. I put some new books away today and have now completely filled my newest bookcase. I've been prowling around the house this morning looking for ANY free space for another.

I've thought about this some more, with both this thread and the Kindle thread active at the same time. People have gleefully and dolorously been predicting the End of The Book in various ways for as long as I can remember. If they keep predicting it long enough, eventually they will set in motion the very event they have been predicting. We are seeing it start now. It was never inevitable, but we seem to be choosing to make it happen.

And in case it happens during my own lifetime, which I suppose is possible, I will stockpile as many excellent books to read and re-read as I possibly can, enough to last my whole life through.

Rosefolly

I have to add my two cents worth. While I pick up paperbacks at the local recycling center in town, if I'm going to pay money for my books I prefer a hardcover. Paperbacks never fail to fall apart, pages floating to the floor at some point.

I really love a little shop the next town over called The Book Bear. They carry all second hand, antique books. There is nothing that beats the heft of a great book in your hand. I like when you have read it so often that the pages are soft and fall open to favorite passages. Or, when a second hand book falls open to someone elses book mark of their favorite place. Even better. I wish I had the income to gleefully go to ebay and buy the editions I have recently seen of Austen and Thomas Hardy and give them a place of honor in my home. Perhaps when income tax time rolls around. It's nearly here...