We must end 2025 with a final farewell in the world of books. Rest in peace, mass market paperbacks. As reported by Publishers Weekly, book distributor ReaderLink will “stop distributing mass market paperback books at the end of 2025 … the latest blow to a format that has seen its popularity dec line for years.” There are several causes of death for the mass market paperback. One is the reduced cost of designing and producing books in the now ubiquitous trade market format. The cheaper price point for a mass market book is no advantage when it isn’t also cheaper to manufacture. The reduction in places where books — primarily mass market books — were sold is also a major factor. Those distinctive wire racks capable of holding hundreds of books were ubiquitous at newsstands, drug stores, grocery stores and elsewhere. The arrival of e-books, which allowed for easy purchasing of popular genre novels, was, if not the final nail, the definitive point of no return for mass market copies. The disappearance of the format is probably only distressing to those of us of a certain age, as the rise and now fall of the format has happened essentially over the course of my lifetime. The bookstore my mom co-founded in 1971 (Northbrook’s The Book Bin) established almost an entire section dedicated to mass market paperbacks when the store doubled in size in the mid-’70s. I can still picture the racks of Peter Benchley’s “Jaws,” featuring a cover modeled after the iconic movie poster. That edition reportedly sold 11 million copies in the six months after the movie’s release. The “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, which I devoured the moment a new edition dropped, were mass market books. Mass market paperbacks were primarily positioned as portable, even disposable, low cost and even lowbrow as they were significantly the realm of bestsellers, mystery, romance, Louis L’Amour Westerns and movie novelizations. Designed for consumption, boy, were they consumed! Dozens of publishers specializing in the format — Ballantine, Bantam and Signet among them — filled the demand. A book getting a mass market edition following a hardcover run became a badge of honor and a route to an almost eternal presence where books were sold. Things have changed. Increasingly, many books released in hardcover that fail to meet particular sales thresholds are never seeing a paperback release. These shifts in distribution and format have much larger effects than we might initially recognize. While the physical format of a mass market paperback was designed for disposability, copies remain remarkably enduring. As a college and then graduate student, the mass market format, particularly used, was my strong preference because of both its low cost and its extreme portability. I still have the row of paperbacks from my “history of the novel” class where I acquired 12 of the titles I needed — “Vanity Fair,” “Tristram Shandy,” et al. — as mass market copies in a New Orleans used bookstore for the grand total of $28. Yes, over time, the pages dry out and take on the texture of vellum and the glue on the books’ spines gives in. I have a copy of “Portnoy’s Complaint” held together with a rubber band because very few of the pages remain secure, but I cannot let go of the underlines and the notes I made in the margins. It may take some time, but like the rebirth of vinyl in recent years, someday I think we will see the return of the mass market paperback as an object of interest and utility. They’re simply too good to be gone forever. John Warner is the author of books including “More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI.” You can find him at biblioracle.com. Book recommendations from the Biblioracle John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read. 1. “Memorial Days” by Geraldine Brooks 2. “107 Days” by Kamala Harris 3. “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari 4. “The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie 5. “Playground” by Richard Powers — Jennifer P., Chicago Since Jennifer doesn’t seem to mind some fantastical events in her fiction, I’m recommending “Exit West” by Mohsin Hamid. 1. “Life After Life” by Kate Atkinson 2. “The Searcher” by Tana French 3. “Down Cemetery Road” by Mick Herron 4. “The God of the Woods” by Liz Moore 5. “We Solve Murders” by Richard Osman — Blaze T., Homewood Lots of “smart” mysteries in here. I’m going to lean in there and recommend the smart and funny “Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone” by Benjamin Stevenson. 1. “Hamnet” by Maggie O’Farrell 2. “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver 3. “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy 4. “My Friends” by Fredrik Backman 5. “Atmosphere” by Taylor Jenkins Reid — Jill M., Urbana I’m hoping that Jill has not yet read Sally Rooney because I think it’s a great fit. I’ll go with her most recent, “Intermezzo.” Get a reading from the Biblioracle Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to [email protected]. ...read more read less