There was a time, in a distant past, when books filled the void for many that phones fill today — on the go escape. Many titles were offered in these dime store editions. Action, adventure, romance! Small, thin, portable, and cheap. Easy to slip into a jacket pocket, briefcase, or purse. Text and spacing reduced to the bare minimum in order to pack a lot of reading into as small a footprint as possible.
Perhaps, we should get back to this. Penguin has tried something bold, releasing a series of books by author John Green and a handful of others as “Penguin Minis” — a line designed to be pocket-ish (if not a bit too thick). That said, I’m not sure YA is the best genre or audience for such a thing. But, I give them a a for effort.
Bottom line is I’d love to see more publishers take a stab at resurrecting this idea. Not sure it will make it into my rotation soon but I’ll be taking this along with me to read again and will be on the lookout for others like this in the little free libraries around town.