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The Rise and Fall of the Paperback Book

Squirrelly Nerdy Jess

53,966 views

A brief history of the English paperback book and how it rose to prominence despite skeptical publishers and the destruction of World War II.

WANT TO BUY ANY OF THE BOOKS IN THIS VIDEO?
Some are still available in my bookshop - Cotswold Internet Books!

Sixpenny Paperbacks: https://tinyurl.com/cib-sixpenny
Tauchnitz Paperbacks: https://tinyurl.com/cib-tauchnitz
Albatross Paperbacks: https://tinyurl.com/cib-albatross
Vintage Penguin Books: https://tinyurl.com/cib-penguin
Pocket Books: https://tinyurl.com/cib-pocketbooks
USA Armed Services Editions: https://tinyurl.com/cib-armedservices
Pan Books: https://tinyurl.com/cib-panbooks
Corgi Books: https://tinyurl.com/cib-corgi

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Intro 00:00
The First (Cheap) Paperbacks 01:10
A Better Quality Paperback 05:52
Paperbacks in the UK 09:00
Paperbacks in the USA 13:11
The Impact of World War II 15:28
The Elevation of Content 16:59
The Death of Mass Market Paperbacks 19:39
Conclusion 21:24
Bloopers 22:45

THINGS MENTIONED

Dime Novels
Penny Dreadfuls
Half-penny Periodicals (Comics)
Sixpenny Novels
Tauchnitz books
Albatross books
Paper Books and Bonibooks
Penguin Books
War Economy Standard books
Pan Books
Pocket Books
Armed Forces editions
New York Times piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/bo...

ADDITIONAL RESEARCH MATERIALS USED

The Paperback: Its Past, Present and Future: A Paper read to The Double Crown Club in April 1959 by Desmond Flower
Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005 by Phil Baines

FOR FURTHER LEARNING

Series of Series: https://seriesofseries.com/paperback-...
Paperback Revolution: https://paperbackrevolution.wordpress...
Vintage Paperback Books: http://www.satiche.org.uk/paper/pengu...
Quality Paperback Series: https://www.qpbseries.com/home
Penguin First Editions: https://penguinfirsteditions.com/

CREDITS

Music by Daniel Hines
www.danielhines.co.uk

Stock Videos by:
AttilaPergel from Pixabay
seyhmuskino from Pixabay
Alejandero Ferreyra from Pixabay
Alex Agrico from Pixabay
Tham Nguyen from Pixabay

CONTACT JESS

Follow me on Instagram if you’d like: @squirrellynerdyjess

Want to get in touch?: jess.trainedsquirrels@gmail.com

I am currently reading:
The Testaments, Margaret Atwood

Number of subscribers when this video was published: 9,247

#books #bookhistory #publisher #penguinbooks #paperback #vintagebooks #bookseller

20 Comments

@rewster7 2 months ago

I much prefer hardcovers but the affordability of paperbacks is often tempting.

@roxanneapolonia776 2 months ago

I choose a paperback over a hardback any day, I’ll wait to read new releases just for them. I’d be so sad without paperbacks!

@theosoryu 2 months ago (edited)

great video! I definitely prefer reading paperback books and I’m sad at the prospect of losing the mass market format because I like reading a smaller format. I like the more conventionally sized paperbacks too, but I avoid hardback books if I can

@blumeshullman8002 2 months ago

The paperback is alive and well in France where hardbacks are quite rare. People tend to find them more comfortable to read, and also it allows them to buy more books because they cost less and take up less space on the bookshelf. They can easily be taken with you wherever you go. Interestingly it's younger readers who tend to invest in the more expensive hardbacks, especially in the romance and fantasy genre with the sprayed edges, embossed titles, and lots of art inside. They are more interested in books as an object to be displayed than other readers tend to be. It's unusual in french publishing that has for a very long time favored minimalist graphic designs to let the story shine by itself, and still does for the most part.

@MissDatherinePierce 2 months ago

Fun fact: In German, we still call paperbacks pocket books (Taschenbücher).

Hardcovers are called bound books (gebundene Bücher).

@mdeliacloherty 3 months ago

It’s been so sad watching mass markets get taller and/or wider and go up to 8.99 and 9.99!

I think I almost always prefer paperback novels, but I buy hardcovers when I’m getting children’s books for an elementary school librarian.

@JasonJrake 2 months ago

My favorite niche is “pocket” size paperbacks with (hard) library bindings.

Mostly because you can’t get many books in that size in a true hardback, but also because I get them used/cheap, so I’m not worried about ruining them keeping them in a bag

@MegaPianoplayer1 2 months ago

I also mourn the death of the paperbacks. When you find old paperbacks from the 50s-70s or 80s, they're so cool with such a wide variety of genres and great artwork on the cover but all there are now are 50 billion copies of James Patterson or one of a few other authors with uninspired artwork on the cover.

@dustojnikhummer 2 months ago

Hardcovers are for collecting, paperback is for reading.

@jeffmauldin4299 2 months ago

My mom collected every Harlequin romance paperback from the very beginning she had the complete collection

@Grapeofwrathes 2 months ago

I prefer paperbacks by a long shot, but I do love a beautiful hardback. But I love the comfort of reading with a paperback and seeing the creases on the spine progressing as I read on and on.

@viceroy_raygun 1 month ago (edited)

I generally like to own hardbacks, especially for my favorite books, but there is something romantic about the feeling of stuffing an old paperback in your pocket and going on a journey, even if that's just heading to the nearby park. Paperbacks are just so much more convenient and comfortable to read.

@AshCinis 2 months ago

I used to prefer hardbacks because of their durability, but I now prefer paperbacks because I can use my pencil as a bookmark in them

@pmichael73 2 months ago

Remember also the tradition in France to produce books that were paper-bound - with dust jacket - on good paper and stitched signatures. These were designed to be custom bound by owners, but could be read as paperbacks, too. Second-hand shops in France of full or them.

@iilovenerds 2 months ago

paperbacks until i die!! i will be waiting for the paperback release every time

@erikaleksandermoe1634 2 months ago

I do prefer to read hardcover books, but when it comes to paperbacks I highly prefer the trade paperbacks to mass market paperbacks because of their increased physical and font size. Mass market paperbacks with their tiny text size are just too small my eyes at this moment in time.

@WINGTV9 2 months ago (edited)

I'll tell you what I really miss: the fantasy and science fiction magazines Amazing Stories and Fantastic Stories from 1968 through 1979, under the editorship of Ted White. They were lovingly produced with great covers and great interior black and white art and fascinating and intelligent editorials and readers letters, wonderful columns by Fritz Leiber and L. Sprague de Camp. Somehow the stories seemed to have more soul when they were published there than when they later came out in paperback collections or as novels.

@saeflin 2 months ago

Fun fact! Over in New Zealand books are very rarely released in Hard cover due to shipping constraints, most of our new books are printed out of Australia in Trade paperback. Most of the time we only get hardcover copies of books if theyre special editions or it is a popular release and the publisher refuses to print them in trade.

@ImBatfan 2 months ago

I'm the kind of person who likes to haul books around with them, so paperbacks have always been what I prefer, especially for a book I've never read before. I have plenty of fancier hardcovers in my collection for archival purposes, but it's the cheap paperbacks my eyes spend most of their time on.

@rogerstewart4608 2 months ago

I have lots of hardcover and trade paperback books in my personal library but still love mass market paperbacks. As a relatively poor kid growing up in a small town back in the 60s, I learned to love reading with the mass market paperback science fiction, horror, and mystery paperbacks I found on the wire rack at the local drugstore. I became an English major and later went to work in publishing. I’ve also become a collector of what are now called vintage paperbacks and have seen the prices on those older paperbacks, with their exciting painted covers, rise quite a been over the years. If indeed fewer people are reading these days, could the fall of easily accessible, cheap paperbacks and the distribution system that supported them have something to do with that? I think so.