Dust Jackets

There have been a number of hardcover books coming out in the States of late which do not have dust jackets. I approve, just to get that out of the way. Recently I found a bag of dust jackets which I'd removed from the books so that they (the jackets) would not get tattered while the boy or I were reading/playing with/losing the books. The bag was crushed, of course, so all dreams of "someday I will sell this for a mazillion dollars,which will come in handy as there will be no social safety nets soonly" were dashed. I'll just have to keep stuffing bullion into the mattresses instead.

Dust jackets are a relatively recent invention, as anyone in antique books can tell you. The covers of books have long been embossed, or had pictures on them. For some reason, somewhere, it was decided that an extra layer of paper was needed. One boss of mine was very particular about the Care Of Dust Jackets. Do not use the side flaps as page-savers in Utah, just a warning.

Anyhoo- I like this new trend and have taken to snickering when I see an environmet-oriented book clad in the extra layer (ahem, Al Gore).

Some of the new books sans DJ are made in imitation of the older books, it's true, but a number of them are not, and the design is rather good. I am hoping that this will continue, or that attention will re-focus to the spines of the books, rather than the obvious advertisment factor of the Glorious Dust Jacket For Facing Out on the shelf.