Book Time Sensuality

Livrari Lello, Portugal

In parallel with my research into perfumes, appears to be a deepening interest in the tactile quality of books and reading. There is a tendency to view bibliophiles as cerebral, not so present in their bodies, and lacking in sensuality. Hence, the divine right jocks and bullies feel they have all over the world to pick on the child quietly reading in the corner. I noticed a shift in popular culture with this some time back - 'Revenge of the Nerds,' 'Big Bang Theory' etc. - but it is the sensual aspect of reading I wish to address here rather than the shifting broader attitudes towards it.

First I would like to emphasise the importance of covers. While it is true that you cannot judge a book by its cover, the outside appearance has a strong immediate effect, as every publisher knows. Not only that, the effect continues whilst you are reading it. I was so appalled by the hardback cover of a leering Georgian gentleman on one copy of Pride and Prejudice, I pasted a card of two passionate Regency lovers on top, so seamlessly you wouldn't notice, especially as the couple's features fitted those of Elizabeth and Darcy to most people's minds. This made a tremendous difference to my re-reading of the book, a pleasure to open and close it each time. Now I own another edition of the same, printed seventy years ago, beautifully done, and with no illustration whatsoever on the cover. This suits me just as well, because the feel of the book as with many older hardbacks, is excellent. As long as I don't have a garish, discordant cover to distract me. Which takes me to my next point.

I can enjoy the feel of paperbacks also. Sometimes I even prefer them for some reason, I notice particularly with thrillers or whodunnits. It's something to do with the pace I imagine, and the ease of taking and reading them on bus or train journeys. However, with the impact of Print On Demand technology, the types of binding and paper changed quite significantly. I love and appreciate the rise of POD. In fact, without it I doubt I would have managed to publish so much as I have. I see POD and self-publishing also as something akin to the punk movement in music - when the establishment is so dinosaur-like in its attitudes and behaviour, all you can do is rebel and get on with your creativity despite limited resources. The usual paperback covers though tend to be harsh to hold, the edges threatening to cut the skin. Certainly not a pleasure, and I've had feedback from readers concerning this in the past. This is a problem, for there are many books being printed this way, some of them very important in their field. Reading can be quite an intimate experience, and it has to feel right. There is a solution.

After some research I found people made fabric sleeves that could slip over books. I suspect originally it may have been so people couldn't see what you were reading (!), but now it could be done to improve the sensual experience of holding a book. I contacted a skilled seamstress friend of mine, describing what I wanted. She said she'd never attempted anything like that, but was up for the challenge, giving me a choice of fabrics. The trick was to get the size right. What I discovered was that POD books are often 6x9". I don't know why as it's unusual generally. The other frequent size is A5, as with those in my X-Dimensions Septology. My friend went for the larger size, as it accommodates A5 quite nicely as well. The above pictures show how well everything turned out. There was a book I'd been avoiding reading simply because I couldn't face its harsh edges. It was a book about modern day sensuality, and the contrast between the subject and the experience of reading about it, was too off-putting. Until I got the cover, and read it with delight. The cover was transformational.

Which takes me to the new edition of Quality Time: The Equivocal Return of Lizzie Borden. I have a separate series of books, about genetically engineered children, that I wrote some time back. It didn't feel like the right time to publish them then, also I felt I really needed to get the design and presentation right, perhaps in hardback. When Quality Time was published as an eBook, it was for convenience and also an experiment. I wasn't concerned about the upsurge of digital publishing, and thought Stephen Fry got it right when he said that 'books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators'. (In fact, I find digital versions preferable when reading books of a scientific/research persuasion, as making notes and finding them is much easier.) But it turned out most bibliophiles in my sphere still had a preference for physical books, and Quality Time sold the least of my titles. Okay, that's not saying much as I'm no John Grisham, but the difference was noticeable.

So it was I decided to use this year as another experiment, and have Quality Time done as a hardback. By doing this, I knew I was going to make it more expensive but wanted to go for quality more than quantity. There is also the question of longevity. A documentary about what would happen to our culture if civilisation collapsed, revealed that anything digitalised would vanish very quickly. Books would last for centuries if kept in good atmospheric conditions, and my experience is that hardbacks do best. As much as I love the old paperback editions from authors such as Raymond Chandler, I find the pages often so deteriorated as to be unreadable. I had no idea if the POD system could produce hardbacks of both visual and sensual appeal, so awaited the arrival of the proof copy with some trepidation. I knew - having a good team work on the design, typeset etc. - it would look good, but it was the feel of the book that concerned me. I needn't have worried. It's beautifully printed, feels great to hold, and people have been very complimentary.

This was an encouraging result, and I hope to be able to continue in this vein with the aforementioned books on genetic engineering in the future - about the future!