cover

[Paul Mackin]

On Jul 22, 2006, at 11:10 AM, Ya Sam wrote:

> I can't agree with the point that a hard-cover GR should be by  
> default an ultra-expensive affair unavailable for 'ordinary folks'.  
> I am not looking forward to a calf-skin bound volume with golden  
> tooling and original engravings (by Zak Smith?). In fact it would  
> be less expensive for an ordinary Pynchon reader to have a stalwart  
> hard copy, then to buy several paperbacks that fall apart on second  
> reading. And about prices: here is a good example showing that it  
> is possible to have a hard-cover version of that kind of book  
> without extorting too much from the potential buyer:


I didn't really mean my "little guy" reference to be taken  
seriously.  Personally I  hate paperbound books. My 1973 GR  
paperbound is in tatters, has been practically unreadable for 20  
years or so.

My family doesn't run to twins. However I have heard that it a common  
experience for the first born twin to hold some kind of long term  
psychological advantage over his or her sibling who may have arrived  
only a few moments  later.  Therefore, because of some admittedly  
rather dubious and far from conclusive evidence,  I will continue  to  
feel strongly that in the case of Gravity's Rainbow the paperbound  
version is the first born I will continue to cherish my page-dripping  
copy above all others.

Whimsically,

P


>
> At Amazon:
>
> Ulysses (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)
> List Price: $18.42
> Price: $12.89
>
> Ulysses (Modern Library) (Hardcover)
> List Price: $22.95
> Price: $15.61
>
> Hardback of GR in Everyman's at a moderate price is what Pynchon  
> everyman needs!
>
>
>
>
>
>> Has it occurred to anyone that Pynchon might actually prefer  
>> seeing  his books paperbound? Part of his feelings for the little  
>> guy sort of  personality.  I noticed something curious, though  
>> probably  meaningless, the  other day.  The March 23, 1973,   
>> review of  Gravity's Rainbow by Michael Wood the The New York  
>> Review of Books  lists ONLY the paperbound version  in the heading.
>> .
>>                         Viking, 760 pp., $4.95 (paper)
>>
>> Then I was reminded that when I  had dropped into my local  
>> bookstore  on publication day only the paperbound version was yet  
>> available.
>>
>> Maybe Gravity's Rainbow is doomed to be just of regular book for   
>> ordinary folks.
>>
>>
>
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