Tuesday, May 1, 2007

THEN AGAIN, IN MY FANTASY WORLD DVORAK DEFEATS QWERTY: I spent a good part of the last few days putting books in boxes, so I have to ask the question that bugs me every few years: why in the world don't we have industry-wide standardized book sizes? I mean, you don't usually think of people in the publishing industry as the dumbest f---ing people in the whole world, but come on. I realize that there are six or ten normal paperback literature sizes and that there may occasionally be good reasons to have an unusually-shaped book, but what is the excuse for not otherwise rigorously defining and sticking to 14 standard sizes -- art book; textbook/dictionary; academic work; highbrow mass market ; lowbrow mass market; large children's book; small children's book, all in hard- and soft-cover sizes? Does the industry really get anything out of letting some book designer say "sure, an extra inch of width will totally screw up Spaceman's ability to pack this thing, but isn't that a small price to pay so that Spaceboy can feel like he's right there when the pigeon eats the hot dog?"

In sum, go f--- yourselves, book designers.

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