Most of my reading is done via the local library, although occasionally I will find myself at the bookstore café without anything to read (violating the job search precept to “never eat alone”). I recently picked up a couple of crime/thriller/trash fiction novels and found a disturbing product trend. Books are obviously available in many shapes and sizes, but those I’ve bought generally fall into one of three categories:

Hardcovers – reserved for those very few authors whose books I *must* read as soon as they hit the shelves

Paperbacks – hoarded for plane travel when one does not know how many delays US Airways will impose upon one

Trade paperbacks - I didn’t realize that these allegedly contain the same number of pages in the same format as the hardcover edition. There is now a fourth category, insidiously invading the book landscape – the SUPER LARGE PAPERBACK. The same width as a regular paperback, but far taller, these books are the “How’s the weather up there? Did you play college basketball?” mutants of the paperback species. They are inconvenient to carry, not fitting well in a pocket or even a small purse, although they supposedly are printed in larger type (for aging Boomer eyes, I presume). And, it goes without saying, they cost $2-$3 more than a standard paperback. For that price I expect them to make me a cup of tea and hold the book while I read, but they have thus far not lived up to these expectations.