When I am at a book sale or used bookstore I have a tendency to avoid book club books like the plague. Why? There are many reasons and not all of them are straight forward...
The main drawback for me (and probably any other book person who voices their opinion as a negative one concerning book club editions) is that book club editions (bce’s), for the most part, are just not of the same quality as the publisher’s edition. They are crap. They tend to be smaller and of lesser quality. Their bindings are weak, their materials are not the greatest, and construction is often less than desirable. In most cases they are as instantaneously recognizable as a cheap knockoff Rolex bought on a New York City street corner would be. Some are so bad that it is hard to imagine anyone finding the act of reading them enjoyable as their quality may actually be a distraction to the story. In most instances I’d much prefer a mass market paperback to read.
For a book collector the quality issues are one big mark against them. Another is the simple fact that, even if made to superior quality than a publisher’s edition, they are re-issues, and a collector is always tends to be in search for the first… this bit about not being a first edition is a pretty big issue - in many instances a first edition, for reasons such as age and publisher quality, are of lower quality than later editions - and in most of these instances, the first edition is the most desirable. Some of Stephen King’s early books, such as the original 1978 publication of The Stand, are a good, and somewhat popular, example of this - these books can be of the same or lesser quality as a book club edition, and the original is worth A LOT more money (not that this collecting game is about money for me - money is more of a tool, or a gauge, in the playing of the game).
Does some small amount hypocrisy come into play in relation to my views of book club editions? Absolutely. OK, it is not hypocrisy, per se, for I recognize and freely admit my ownership of book club editions… I am a complex being when it comes to books, and not always rational. Not only do I own a few bce’s bought off the shelves of used bookstores and from the tables of book sales, but I am a former, and just recently re-enrolled, member of the Science Fiction Book Club. While the books I buy from the sfbc are not ones I plan on displaying on my limited shelf space, they are serviceable reader copies that serve their purpose dutifully. In addition, the sfbc has wide selection of “club exclusives” which, while not collectable, are in my opinion worth holding on to. Not only does the sfbc “club exclusives” include hardcover editions of books only available in paperback elsewhere and omnibus editions of 2-5 books of cheap thin paper bound together under one cover, but there is the occasional production of books that can really be considered “excusive” such as HP Lovecraft’s Black Seas of Infinity which “contains stories in Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, his own history of The Necronomicon, notes on writing weird fiction—and more”, and some
exclusive short fiction anthologies.
So, boiling it down - do I recommend book club editions? If you have any inkling of collecting every book you buy, no. If you are a reader who passes books on once they have been read, sure, why not, a book club could save you some money on recently published books and the occasional out of print rarity too. You must take the good with the bad.
Look forward to a post comparing specific points of a book using a book club edition and a publisher’s edition, with pictures, sometime shortly.
Though the paper quality cannot be really seen in these pictures, trust me there is big difference between the two. Also, please take note of a HUGE difference in the binding of each edition - one is glued and one is sewn - the sewn binding of the publisher’s edition is sturdier and will last longer...
OK, so you just read all that and stared dutifully at the pictures and are now thinking “so what, is the book a good read or not”? Well, I just started reading it, so you’ll have to check back for a review sometime later.
