
Tiny Books Fit in One Hand. Will They Change the Way We Read? - ingve
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/business/mini-books-pocket-john-green.html
======
dmreedy
"It's a very old Orange Catholic Bible made for space travelers. Not a
filmbook, but actually printed on filament paper. It has its own magnifier and
electrostatic charge system." He picked it up and demonstrated. "The book is
held closed by the charge, which forces against spring-locked covers. You
press the edge - thus, and the pages you've selected repel each other and the
book opens."

"It's so small."

"But it has eighteen hundred pages. You press the edge - thus, and so.. and
the charge moves ahead one page at a time as you read. Never touch the actual
pages with your fingers. The filament tissue is too delicate". He closed the
book, handed it to Paul. "Try it."

I don't really have anything meaningful to contribute, this just so very much
put me in mind of Dr. Yueh's gift to Paul Atreides at the beginning of _Dune_.
A kind of retro-futurism, where the imagination can't conceive entire new
forms of things, and so just tries its best to figure out what a faster horse
looks like (granted, in this particular instance, there are other reasons). I
wonder what books for a creature with three arms would look like.

~~~
mmjaa
I don't think there's anything in the story to suggest that the retro-futurism
was because of a lack of imagination regarding future, alien-yet-familiar,
sustainable information technology.

Perhaps the point was, the book aesthetic was important to the character.

> I wonder what books for a creature with three arms would look like.

Indeed, the book was probably designed for space travel, i.e. usable outside
human limits. Perhaps, given the proper circumstances, the book would propel
itself through the vacuum of space by way of induced charge ..

~~~
dsnuh
I believe that the technology in the book must be viewed through the lens of
The Butlerian Jihad events of the Dune universe, and the commandment of not
making a machine in the image of the human mind. It isn't retro-futurism, it's
human-centric technology.

In the later books, shigawire is also mentioned as a data storage method, so I
don't think it was a lack of imagination.

~~~
b5
Herbert quite deliberately planned the _Dune_ universe to be seemingly
technologically backwards to remove the crutch of technology and focus instead
on human potential.

~~~
dsnuh
Exactly, and this is why I think the series is such a standout.

------
apocalypstyx
I would prefer someone come up with a new form of binding so books lay open
flat and effortlessly, rather than feeling as if someone is seemingly
implicitly telling me I should also invest in the purchase of a pair of Jaws
of Life in order to use them.

~~~
clickok
The problem with most recent books is that they use a glue-based binding, but
the glue seeps into the spine far enough that it makes laying them flat
difficult.

However, if you bind it yourself, you can get the desired behavior pretty
easily. I have a summary of my process in the footnote of an older comment[0],
but I've been able to get it working with hardcover books, and experimented
with using a little bit of thread to reinforce the binding. So far, none of my
books have come apart and they all lay flat. The problem with this is that you
either have to print your own books or remove the binding from existing ones
and then rebind them, which is not especially time consuming but not exactly
fast either.

I wonder why this style of binding isn't more common? Is it just too expensive
or are there durability concerns?

\-----

0\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15877525](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15877525)

~~~
ChuckMcM
Exactly, the binding is a function of the publisher and there are binding
systems that have the behavior the GP is looking for. The rubber binding
you've mentioned is fine but it isn't particularly durable (it is how notepads
are bound for example.

There is an excellent resource on binding examples here:
[https://www.designersinsights.com/designer-
resources/choosin...](https://www.designersinsights.com/designer-
resources/choosing-the-right-binding-type/) which goes over them. But since
book binding is literally several hundred years old there are lots of good
references.

Sunnyvale used to have an adult education class on book binding that ran
during the summer. I still have my class project from that class somewhere
(which was a sewn case binding).

All that said, if the paper is stiff then the only lie flat option is spiral
or comb binding.

~~~
clickok
So how long would you expect books bound this way to last? I took some
pictures of the ones I've made for reference:
[https://imgur.com/a/60zP8vn](https://imgur.com/a/60zP8vn) . So far, none of
them have come apart but I'm pretty careful with my books.

~~~
ChuckMcM
With cheese cloth and library tape? Many years. If there is just the gum on
the binding (no tape or linen binding) then a couple of years with light use,
less time with heavier use. One of the things that the binding class taught
was that books would be rebound several times in their lifetime. I've rebound
at least a half dozen paperbacks that eventually started dropping pages
(became detached from the binding).

------
b5
They launched this format, calling it "Flipbooks", in the UK in 2011:
[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/20/could-this-
kil...](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/20/could-this-kill-kindle)

It wasn't a success. In all, it looks like they only released a handful in the
initial 2011 launch period, then didn't release any more.[1]

I had a copy of _Cloud Atlas_ in flipback format, and it was... okay. I bought
it in that format purely for the novelty of it. It felt a bit like reading off
a pair of playing cards hinged together, but wasn't entirely unpleasant.
Reading a fullsize paperback is nicer if you like the paper reading
experience. The paper alone makes a difference; it's very thin and crinkly,
like old onion skin paper, or the paper in a Bible, or the paper you buy to
roll your own cigarettes.

The main advantage it has over a Kindle or Kobo is that the book itself folds
down smaller -- a little bigger than an iPod Classic or a pack of cigarettes
-- and it won't run out of battery power. In most other respects, the eReader
has the advantage.

I don't know anyone else who's ever read one.

[1]:
[https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=as_li_ss_tl?rh=n:266239,k:fli...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=as_li_ss_tl?rh=n:266239,k:flipback+edition&page=2&keywords=flipback+edition&ie=UTF8&qid=1541001159&linkCode=sl2&tag=guardianbooks-21&linkId=529922831cf0188f31f9cdc9aa3cffee&language=en_GB)

~~~
grkvlt
Wow, your very own 'Flipback' copy of Cloud Atlas can be had for just over GBP
200 [0] according to Amazon! Are they that rare? Hopefully you kept your copy
in good condition - eBay awaits...

0\. [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cloud-Atlas-Flipback-Publisher-
Pape...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cloud-Atlas-Flipback-Publisher-
Paperback/dp/B00SLW3ENE/ref=sr_1_23?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1541009419&sr=1-23&keywords=flipback+edition)

~~~
thaumasiotes
Books that aren't currently in print occasionally see their used price spike
on Amazon. As far as I can tell, the spike is meaningless and doesn't reflect
that there are any sales occurring at that price point (so you probably
shouldn't hustle over to eBay). You just have to wait for the price to go back
down.

~~~
jdeibele
One thing about eBay is that it will show you sold listings. It's a checkbox
on the bottom of the left-hand column. There are people who apparently set a
price for an item and just re-list it. The asking price may or may not have
anything to do with what people actually are willing to pay.

------
tempodox
The electrified books I read on my iPhone fit in one hand. Of course, the
limiting factor here is (still) which books are available in that format.
Other than that, the ability to carry arbitrary libraries in my pocket
weightlessly has been sort of a game changer for me.

~~~
Kaveren
I can't understand why people still bother with physical books anymore, other
than not having a good enough device or the book isn't available digitally.

We spend a lot of our time reading long-form content online already; there's
no reason books should be any different. People come up with reasoning based
on the feel of pages turning and the like, but I don't buy it.

This move feels like a gimmick to me.

I imagine physical books will become completely obsolete and go out of style
within the next decade or two.

~~~
ashrk
Down sides to e-books:

\- Reading them sucks except on e-ink screens, for a variety of reasons,
including that screens shut off while you're using them, the glow and eye
strain, battery life of such devices, distractions, and more.

\- E-ink devices aren't great at: footnotes, keeping a finger in an index/end-
notes page (generally, bouncing between multiple reference pages), and so on.
They're fine for contemporary fiction and that's about it. [edit] big example:
only one page visible at a time. Two-page layouts can be practically necessary
for many (mostly non-fiction) books, but even in fiction having more text
available to look back at can be really nice.

\- Physical books are a memory aid—I often forget the title and author of
e-books I'm reading because I don't see the cover or spine or top-of-page
notations, and spatial memory kicks in for certain things as far as depth-
into-book and location-on-page. An edge case, but sometimes I have to locate a
book by size and spine color.

\- Personal effort that's probably not common, but most of my books are
arranged chronologically by (often approximate) date of author's first major
work, making the shelves themselves a learning tool. I've not seen a digital
equivalent to a book shelf that does anything like this effectively, and
certainly it wouldn't be there all the time in the room for passive absorption
when you're not actively engaged in browsing.

\- They're also often cheaper than ebooks if you're not just pirating those.
Used books are pretty cheap, and you can recover (usually only a little,
admittedly) money from them if you get rid of them. Used fiction paperbacks
can be so cheap they're effectively disposable.

In ebooks favor, they're incredibly space and weight saving and they're
searchable, and those are definitely big points in their favor. But if I'm
going to go to the trouble of reading anything other than contemporary fiction
or very skimmable/low-value non fiction (think: popular business books) I'm
going to want a real book, so I can take advantage of the features of real
books, not for smell or feel or whatever.

[another edit] oh and you can leave several currently-reading books around the
house without having to buy several $100-200 devices (wait why isn't my book
on this one anymore? Oh one of the kids picked it up and changed it to Wind in
the Willows, hold on, gotta go to the menu...) or go grab your e-reader from
the other room or whatever. Ebooks may win for overall convenience, but they
don't take it without giving up a couple goals to physical books.

~~~
criddell
You forgot one big point in favor of ebooks: large fonts for people with poor
eyesight.

~~~
ashrk
Good point, and the thing that might finally convert me (and just keep me from
reading whole categories of books at all, as a consequence) in (hopefully
very) old age.

[EDIT] to be clear, I'd _love_ for e-readers to actually achieve enough of the
important features of physical books that I could mostly switch over. I'd
probably hold on to a few real books but I'd happily ditch 90+% of them if
they weren't a better interface for their particular content, in ways that
really do matter, than ebooks. Color, higher resolution, and probably at least
two screens per device (or one foldable screen I guess) would be required to
even take a realistic stab at that, though.

Then again there's no way I'd pay new-ebook (only kind) prices for all the
books I have. I could slowly start converting, though, if they were good
enough. It's a features thing, not (entirely) a nostalgia thing.

------
wjvdhoek
As mentioned in the article, over here in the Netherlands we've had these for
quite some time now (called the 'dwarsligger'). It probably won't change the
way we read, but it's a nice form factor for reading during transit or travel
for those who prefer to read from paper.

~~~
gpvos
The format was invented by someone at Jongbloed publishers and printers, which
specializes in printing on thin paper, usually used for bibles and hymn books.

~~~
learc83
I've nevet seen a hymnal with thin paper. They are generally rather rugged
because they are designed to hold up to long term use by multiple people.

Is it common where you are to print them with thin paper?

~~~
gpvos
Most of those used to be combined bible/hymnals, but the most recent (2013)
hymnal of the mainstream protestant churches is so large that it is also
printed on thin paper (maybe not the thinnest?).

Those combined bible/hymnals are usually personal, not for multiple people,
and they're most common among denominations that only use the 150 psalms and a
small number of hymns on texts directly from the bible, although I do have one
with the bible and the entire _Liedboek voor de Kerken_ (from 1973). Normal
hymnals usually used to be printed on normal paper here.

------
mdip
Ha - I had an experience with one of these recently, entirely by accident[0].

I purchased the 7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens for my oldest boy this
summer on Amazon. It's an older book so, naturally, I went to the used/new and
found a listing for the 'paperback' version of it for a few bucks delivered
(compared against over $10).

Then it arrived. And it was about 4cm x 5cm (estimated). I laughed, figuring
I'd been working a little too quickly when I hit the "Buy Now" button so I
went back to the listing. Sure enough, the picture was of the original
paperback and there was no note about it being the "Tiny Version"[1]

At first, I thought 'scam', and it probably was one, but at the end of the day
I ended up with a book that had the content I needed -- not sure if it was
abridged or not, but being that the target reader was an almost-teenager, this
resulted in the material appearing to be a "quick read" which he was able to
complete in a day. And I paid less than 20% of the original price despite
discovering that -- at least in this case -- it was a better option.

[0] Maybe ...

[1] It may not have been; it's entirely possible that my seller was just
selling that version

------
ginko
This seems to be about the format of Reclam[1] books. I don't particularly
notice any differences in the way German speakers read them. Other than them
being cheap and conveniently sized I guess.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reclam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reclam)

------
mosselman
I used to be a paper purist and I still believe paper is better for
educational reading, but nowadays I read my fictional books on an e-reader and
couldn’t be happier.

I can take all sorts of books with me and the reader remembers my place in the
book

I can read in the dark thanks to the backlight

Reading from E-paper feels pretty much the same as from real paper and the
form factor is more comfortable than a 1000 page book

I can read noiselessly, thanks to which I can read in bed at all, or rather,
am allowed to read in bed at all because my wife is a very light sleeper and
the rustling of paper wakes her up. The backlight here helps too.

~~~
forkandwait
I think for reading fiction, ereaders are great, bascially because you read
straight through and illustrations/ equations are not important.

I find for technical books, paper is far superior. The layout is much better
for graphics/ equations, plus the traditional layout of a book (with some post
it stickies) is optimized for easy navigation/ jumping back and forth.

One thing I miss about paper books is their three-dimensionality. If you are
an experienced reader, knowing where you are in the thickness of a book is
just as important for navigating the book as a whole as where you are in any
given page. And I don't think the GUI bookmarks work quite as well as paper,
personally.

Really, it is all about fractions of a second, but it adds up.

(Personally, I don't care about the aesthetics, feel and smell of the paper,
blah blah, I just still think paper technical books win for .)

~~~
andrewla
I feel like we're on the cusp of being able to have a qualitatively better
technical book using interactive media instead of page flipping, but to date
this has not materialized. For casual introductions (i.e. browsing wikipedia)
a phone or table is fine, but a technical book that seeks to lead the reader
from basic understanding to deep knowledge remains tantalizingly out of reach
for anything but a physical paper book.

Being able to rapidly backtrack and sidetrack seems to be the critical issue;
paper allows you to do this so easily with a thumb or other improvised
bookmark. Hypertext and forward/back navigation and tabs seems like it would
be perfect for this, but it doesn't quite work.

Learning effectively from a technical book has to be like lazily reading a
detective novel -- you have to be willing to look at the ending. You do this
before you're in a place to understand it, and then build up that foundation
to the point where it supports what the end goal is going to be. Maybe it's a
question of having a writer who can make this idea a first-class one, by
repetition and backtracking in a forward direction; effectively first
presenting page 8, then 4, then 2, then 1, then 2, then 8, then 2, then 3,
then 1, then 4, or some similar scheme to allow the reader to shore up their
understanding, while allowing them to skim through parts that seem boring or
are too confusing, with the knowledge that they'll have another chance to
review the material, without having to manually backtrack.

~~~
jimmaswell
The content being a website with hyperlinks would solve most of this. Keep
pages open in tabs and bookmark them.

~~~
forkandwait
The act of clicking on links and adding bookmarks, well, just doesn't feel the
same as interacting with a physical book. I think the 3 dimensionality of the
book adds intuition, cues, and a coherence that are lacking in the free for
all of hyperlinks.

I also think an experienced reader can navigate more quickly (yes fraction of
seconds) in a physical book than possible when you have to set bookmarks and
use them in some drop down system.

I would love to see a human factors study comparing hyperlink eReader versus
paper book.

------
xemoka
An article about holding a small book with one hand, so you can easily read
it, that has no pictures of anyone doing so. Why does this happen so often in
newspaper style articles? Argh!

Personally, I've moved from paper fiction to an ebook reader and couldn't be
happier: it's so much easier to hold—particularly with one of those popsocket
grippers affixed to the back.

~~~
luciusism
Here's a photo of a person reading the book with one hand:
[http://geaplamp2.cipal.be/images/uploads/wommelgemdwarsligge...](http://geaplamp2.cipal.be/images/uploads/wommelgemdwarsliggers.jpg)

------
gpm
A week ago I had the opportunity to visit a rare book library and view some
medieval manuscripts.

One of the ones I handled was just as small as these. A few more were much
thicker, but smaller in the other two dimensions.

Unlike these books the text still ran in the "normal" directions, the size of
font varied greatly between books, but in the small books mentioned it was
generally much smaller than this (and in one small book in particular was
easily the smallest font I've ever seen, including on students size restricted
cheat sheets).

Of course, the place of books in society back then was very different than
their place today, so this isn't actually terrible relevant to the article,
but I thought it was an interesting anecdote regardless.

As an aside, if you ever get the chance to view medieval manuscripts, take it.
The art in them is absolutely amazing, everything you see in books today
simply does not compare.

------
pessimizer
These seem like they would be unbelievably tiring to actually hold and read
(horizontally.) What's the advantage supposed to be over the mentioned Pocket
Books short newsstand paperback format? Why can't we just have those back, and
with them 500+ page books being published as multiple volumes? I've always
been an objector to the growth of massive softcovers; I thought they were an
excuse to increase unit cost.

~~~
jhbadger
They really aren't tiring, though. They actually work quite well, although I
doubt that they will really catch on given the competition with ebooks (which
can be read on a phone for similar competition in regard to portability). As
for the old "Pocket Books", I remember those from growing up but always
thought the name was a bit silly because, while smaller than a hardcover,
there was no way those books could fit in a pocket. For what it's worth, these
tiny books do.

------
jseliger
Am I the only one who wants a list of such books somewhere? I've been looking
round for one and not finding it.

~~~
compscistd
I couldn’t find any either. Maybe we’ll hit the right pages by searching in a
few weeks.

------
jack6e
Considering that miniature books have been a part of literary and publishing
history since at least the 16th century, I doubt this modern rehash will
drastically change reading any more than the existing four centuries of
iterations.

That said, mini books with this horizontal orientation are a cute and maybe
convenient idea for some people. Anything that removes barriers to reading
paper books is great.

------
floren
I got the Lord of the Rings "pocket" set about a year ago and I really liked
everything about them. For reference, here's someone else holding "The Hobbit"
with the other books visible too:
[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VM9ZInBNPw4/hqdefault.jpg](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VM9ZInBNPw4/hqdefault.jpg)

The covers are some kind of faux-leather so they fall in between a hardback
and paperback book; they are flexible, but the covers don't fold like a
paperback. The binding was, in my opinion, excellent; you couldn't lay the
book open, but you also didn't feel like you were cracking the spine when you
were reading. The paper is quite thin but tough enough, and I didn't find that
the other side showed through or anything. They were harder to read in dim
light due to the smaller type, but they were laid out just like a full-sized
book.

IIRC I paid something like $30 for the set on Amazon. I would absolutely buy
other books bound in the exact same way.

------
vram22
As many people in India do (due to the role of missionaries in the country), I
studied in schools run by Christian missionary societies, in primary and high
school. In one of them, they used to give out (to all and sundry) these pocket
"Gideon Bibles" (IIRC the name). Religious aspects (on which I'm neutral)
aside, I thought that was a good idea, to have small pocket books that you can
take and read anywhere.

Update: I googled and it seems I got the name right:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideons_International](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideons_International)

~~~
BoomBoomRoom
The Beatles song "Rocky Racoon" mentions the subject (Rocky Racoon) going into
a hotel room and finding "Gideon's Bible".

Rocky Racoon goes to the hotel to shoot the man who had stolen his
girlfriend's heart. He loses a shootout, and heads back to his room.

>Now Rocky Raccoon, he fell back in his room >Only to find Gideon's Bible
>Gideon checked out, and he left it, no doubt >To help with good Rocky's
revival

The song was written in 1968 when The Beatles were in India studying
transcendental meditation. Makes me wonder whether Paul McCartney was gifted a
Gideon Bible in Rishikesh.

~~~
vram22
Interesting story. I had read about the Beatles studying meditation in India.

------
paganel
The "Livre de poche" [1] has been a thing since the 1960s in France, coming
from a francophile culture like mine I was a little surprised when I found out
that in the Anglo-sphere there is still such a strong emphases on hard covers.

[1] [https://www.franceculture.fr/litterature/linvention-du-
livre...](https://www.franceculture.fr/litterature/linvention-du-livre-de-
poche-entre-democratisation-de-la-lecture-et-reactions)

~~~
WAthrowaway
Not only is the emphasis on hard covers for new release - meaning you have to
wait a bit to get a decent paperback - but the paperback sizes are always too
huge to fit into a jacket pocket.

------
thrower123
I want to think that most of the cheap mass market paperbacks I used to buy
were in the vicinity of 4" x 6", and about 300 pages long, which is not far
off from these, and most importantly, were convenient to stuff in a coat
pocket or the back pocket of a pair of jeans. At that kind of size and weight,
they weren't at all painful to read for an extended time. And they were so
cheap that it wasn't a tragedy if I happened to drop one in the mud coming
back from my deerstand or it fell overboard fishing.

I don't really buy fiction on paper anymore, but all the paperbacks I see in
the stores or airports are much bigger. Part of it is ballooning length, but
there's a lot more printed at something like halfway between a trade paperback
and the old mass-markets. Or those really awful awkward tall narrow paperbacks
that remind me of the aspect ratio of the original Microsoft Surfaces.

~~~
joe5150
Do you have an example of what you mean by "tall narrow" paperbacks?

~~~
thrower123
There's was a run of Vince Flynn and Steven King paperbacks that were really
bad for a while, but I'm at work and my library is at home. But this[1] pretty
much shows the difference. It's really glaring next to older pulpy paperbacks
that are undersized compared to the standard size to begin with.

[1]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/5p8bne/this_is_jus...](https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/5p8bne/this_is_just_a_bit_annoying_book_size_issue/)

~~~
joe5150
I see what you mean. I don’t care for those either.

------
pseingatl
No one mentioned the Minibuk ([http://minibuk.com](http://minibuk.com))
printed in the USA. Just as portable, but in a familiar portrait format. There
are lots of use scenarios and they make excellent corporate gifts, giveaways,
business card alternatives, etc.

~~~
justaguyhere
Am I understanding this right?
[https://www.minibuk.com/pricing.php](https://www.minibuk.com/pricing.php)

It costs $2.2 for a 64 page black & white book (first option, 500 units)?

This can sure make a neat corporate gift!

~~~
pseingatl
Concur. I remember ordering 250, once upon a time. I don't have a relationship
with them other than that of a customer. You could print user manuals,
checklists; lawyers could print various sets of rules; a printed wiki for a
project; there are a lot of options besides Cloud Atlas. I think their maximum
page limit is 400 pages or so, which gives you a great deal of room. Their
saddle-stitching (lie flat) option is 48 pages.

~~~
dseid
Hi, I’m David from MiniBük. Interesting discussions you are having. While our
product is “under marketed”, we have continued to grow nonetheless. We have
several sizes, including now 4 1/4 x 6. I agree perfect binding is far from
perfect, we do use super premium paper, with the paper grain parallel to the
spine. This makes the books much more flexible and the pages turn more easily.
The books are also bound with PUR glue, Which is more flexible and durable
then standard perfect binding glue.

Personally, what do when I read a full size book, is tear the cover off, cut
the spine off and coil bind it. Yes, books bound like this all look the same
on the shelf. I also cut away a lot of the excess paper, which in 90% of the
cases is glorified news print. This keeps the weight down. Marketing has
turned out to be the most popular use for our books. Savvy, energetic
entrepreneurs have used them to dramatically elevate the arc of their success.
Cara Silletto of Crescendo Strategies, is a poster child for this. She gave
away nearly 30,000 of her MiniBük over a three-year period and skyrocketed her
career. Books of been direct mailed with great success by James Lange of
Paytaxeslater.com

Happy to send out samples. Please request via our web form. Please state your
specific interest for sample customization.

One more thing: I searched for Cara Siletto, and the first thing that popped
up was a PDF e-book download which we prepared for her. Using the same files
we print from, these PDFs display perfectly on a smart phone. So you cannot
only distribute them electronically, but you can use them as a hook to build a
great email list. Also, books under 88 pages mail with a one or 2 ounce stamp
in our special envelopes.

------
ztjio
I adopted eBooks about 15 years ago because I preferred the tiny form factor
and portability that offered. (I read purely free books from Project Gutenberg
on a Nokia N-Gage, the second gen one, ah the memories.) That's why today I
still prefer to do all of my entertainment reading (basically anything 100%
reflowable) on my phone.

This feels like a decade late effort to compete poorly on the same basis.

That said, I'm convinced reading is vastly more enjoying in a visual form
aligning with news columns vs. the large space in trade paperbacks and the
like. So if you're a paper slave, I'd suggest giving the small form factor a
try.

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
I read several Dostoevsky novels from Project Gutenberg on my Nintendo DS Lite
about ten years ago. The fact that I could actually hold it like a book was
quaint at the time.

These days my primary eBook reader is a Nexus 7.

~~~
dogma1138
Reading off a DS screen Jesus I’m not sure if I should envy or pity your
eyesight at this point.

~~~
jerf
I read a number of Project Gutenberg books on my Palm Pilot in the late 1990s.
160x160 monochrome.

To beat that you'd pretty much need to read a book off of one of these:
[https://www.newark.com/lumex/lcm-s01602dtr-a/dot-matrix-
lcd-...](https://www.newark.com/lumex/lcm-s01602dtr-a/dot-matrix-lcd-
display-16x2/dp/19J7660)

Now, I'm sure someone is either A: going to pop up to claim that they did or
B: pop up to say they now have their next Arduino project. "E-Readers are so
big and expensive, so I thought I'd roll my own with parts I just have lying
around..."

Anyhow, when I see people talking about they can't _possibly_ code with
anything less than a 4K display, I still find myself chuckling a bit. Not that
they're bad things by any means, but... well... it's a pretty big leap over
where I started. I remember the excitement I had in college when I could get
800x600 and 1024x768 for the first times. So much text!

~~~
eberkund
They used to give out these things: [https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/One-QuickPAD-
word-processor-H45-T...](https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/One-QuickPAD-word-
processor-H45-Technolog-USB-receiver-/130752799728) to students when I was in
school for word processing. If I remember right it could display 2 lines of
text on the screen at a time.

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vanderZwan
Oh wow, I know one of the patent attorneys who worked for the law firm that
helped Royal Jongbloed way back when they created this format! It feels like a
lifetime ago, and since the original patent[0] was filed in 2006 that is kind
of true, I guess.

> _Jongbloed, which was founded in 1862 as a bookshop and later became a Bible
> printer, created the flipback format in 2009, and quickly realized there was
> a wide audience for compact, portable books._

> _But getting English flipback editions of Mr. Green’s books proved endlessly
> complicated. Jongbloed is currently the only printer in the world that makes
> them, using ultrathin but durable paper from a mill in a village in
> Finland._

So from what my friend told me back then, Jongbloed was a fairly small
printer, and struggling with ever-decreasing Bible sales (the Netherlands has
gotten more secular over the generations). They knew they couldn't compete
with the big printing companies because of economies of scale, but unlike
them, they had the technology and skills to print on ultra-thin paper, because
that was the traditional way they printed their Bibles. So they decided to try
and create a new niche for themselves based on this edge, and came up with the
sideways, one-handed pocket idea.

Based on all the software patent horror stories I hear, I guess that in the
Netherlands it takes more effort to patent things - basically, the US patent
office defers checking the validity of the patent to whomever challenges it in
court, whereas the Netherlands patent office does not. It's the combination of
printing on ultra-fine Bible paper with a sideways pocket is ultimately what
got them the patent.

I remember my friend being really excited about it. Haven't spoken to him in
ages, but we originally studied physics and switched careers. He told me he
loved being a patent attorney because it boils down to writing out ideas in a
really exact language, which basically meant he gets to be a technical
consultant for people with novel, interesting ideas that he would have never
taught of himself.

[0]
[https://patents.google.com/patent/NL1032073C2/en?q=Jongbloed...](https://patents.google.com/patent/NL1032073C2/en?q=Jongbloed&q=book&country=NL)

------
billfruit
Pocket hardbacks in miniature are not a new thing, I have several from the
1960s which comfortablly go into pant pockets.

But I remember a fad from 3-4 years ago, for enabling one handed reading,
called flipback binding, ie paperbacks with printing that goes in the long
direction instead of the short direction on the page, so you hold it with one
hand, read top to bottom, flip next page again go top to bottom, rinse and
repeat.In theory a great idea, but I haven't actually tried one.

~~~
almostarockstar
That is what the article is about.

~~~
dvfjsdhgfv
I think the parent comment is a perfect answer to the question posed in the
title.

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internet555
Loeb library is like this but I’ve never seen anyone walk around reading them.
Maybe this is because of who I hang out with :)

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innocentoldguy
I haven't tried this format yet, but I think I'd like it. I do nearly all of
my reading in bed and this format seems like it would eliminate the issue of
having to hold the book up in the air every other page so I can see it (which
is the main reason I started using an e-reader).

------
sigi45
I loved reading books but i realized for myself that a book is a tool for
reading. I like my kindle very much.

I have even ripped books in half to read the first half first and than the
second because those books with 1k pages are horrible to read.

------
skookumchuck
I tried reading books on my phone, but gave it up because it drained the
battery like a torpedo below the waterline.

I'd buy an e-ink reader with a form factor the size of a phone. The usual
ereaders don't fit in a pocket.

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johnchristopher
Likewise I am considering replacing my 6 inch kobo with a 5 inch model.

~~~
b5
It's a shame Kobo now only make 6"\+ models. I really hoped that they'd
release something with the form-factor of the Forma HD but with a 5" screen:
[https://uk.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-
forma](https://uk.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-forma)

~~~
johnchristopher
Oh, I didn't know the mini was discontinued. It's still on sale in Belgium in
brick and mortar shops.

------
perl4ever
This isn't a new thing. I remember miniature books from several decades ago.
Maybe 2.5-3 inches tall. And ultra-thin paper was also used to make large
books relatively small.

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pastor_elm
In the age of e-readers, I wish they would put more effort into making unique
hardbacks. It seems every new hardback is just made to be oversized with a
very generic-looking sleeve.

~~~
silves89
I don't have any data but I don't think this isn't true at all. I have read at
least two articles describing the extra lengths publishers are going to in
order to compete. I have bought many beautiful hardbacks released since
e-readers took off.

------
casper345
A good reference also might be pocket bibles. Although they are somewhat used,
anecdotally I still see more people with the full size "normal" books at
church.

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gglitch
Would the paper hold up to marginalia?

~~~
b5
Not really -- it's incredibly thin. You'd need to write carefully, either with
a pencil or a non-bleeding pen. You also have almost no space to write in: see
this picture halfway down the _NYT_ article to see how small the margins are:
[https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/10/22/books/00TINYBOOKS...](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/10/22/books/00TINYBOOKS-
GIF/00TINYBOOKS-GIF-jumbo.gif?quality=90&auto=webp)

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pbreit
I keep wanting to print some books in magazine format. Any takers?

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jandrusk
Thought that's what e-readers were for.

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jpmoyn
I will stick with my kindle

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TheRealPomax
To answer the article: no.

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muhammadusman
where can I buy these?

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this_is_not_you
"An Abundance of Kathrines" (title image) was a pretty cool book.

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dquarks
Ha. I can just read books on my watch. Nice try

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jniedrauer
Betteridge's law of headlines applies here I think.

