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Mini-books and me.
Dec. 11th, 2002 11:39 amYou'd think with my eyesight, I'd hate the new trend of these tiny little mini-books you see at bookstores these days. Little three-inch versions of the bestsellers of yesteryear.
Actually, I think they're pretty cool and find them surprisingly readable.
With any book, I have to either use magnification or get way close to the page to read anyway. But with these mini-books, that's all I have to do. I don't have to scan my eyes across the page over and over; that's a lot more tiring than it was when I was an invincible child and could just run my nose back and forth across a hundred pages without breaking a sweat.
Also, I bought the mini-version of "The Joy of Cooking", and I suspect it actually uses a bigger font than the mega-version. Tiny books know they're tiny, so they have to put forth an effort to make themselves more legible to compensate, meaning using a good font. There's about 250 pages in the mini-version, divided over 13 chapters. Their brief nature makes them perfect to my short attention span. That's probably why most people like them.
And finally, they legitimize the "for Dummies" books. Anyone who is so intimidated by a topic as to select a book that claims to be for dummies, would probably get the book home, take one look at the table of contents, and realize that heavy books take a looong time to read. Give them a mini-book and they'll feel like they can mow through it in an hour and be performing whatever skill they've learned that very evening!
Actually, I think they're pretty cool and find them surprisingly readable.
With any book, I have to either use magnification or get way close to the page to read anyway. But with these mini-books, that's all I have to do. I don't have to scan my eyes across the page over and over; that's a lot more tiring than it was when I was an invincible child and could just run my nose back and forth across a hundred pages without breaking a sweat.
Also, I bought the mini-version of "The Joy of Cooking", and I suspect it actually uses a bigger font than the mega-version. Tiny books know they're tiny, so they have to put forth an effort to make themselves more legible to compensate, meaning using a good font. There's about 250 pages in the mini-version, divided over 13 chapters. Their brief nature makes them perfect to my short attention span. That's probably why most people like them.
And finally, they legitimize the "for Dummies" books. Anyone who is so intimidated by a topic as to select a book that claims to be for dummies, would probably get the book home, take one look at the table of contents, and realize that heavy books take a looong time to read. Give them a mini-book and they'll feel like they can mow through it in an hour and be performing whatever skill they've learned that very evening!
