Computer books use trade binding, which is a bit more robust than paperback binding. I have a few older books I still use where the binding has broken. I used some clear packing tape to re-seal the binding, but the book is truly falling apart. By the way, authors love that!<\/p>\n
When I first started writing about technology, I did a few titles for TAB Books. If you’re crusty enough, you’ll remember TAB Books. They had the first computer book club. I was a member way back in the 1980s, well before I wrote books for them.<\/p>\n
The fascinating thing about the TAB Computer Book Club was that the computer books you received were hardbound.<\/p>\n
You signed up for the book club and got 8 or so books for a penny. Then every so often they’d either send you a book or you could order a title at full price. This process is typical of most book clubs, but for TAB all the titles were technology-related.<\/p>\n
I purchased many programming books, hardware books, all sorts of stuff from the TAB Computer Book Club. And I enjoyed the books. I didn’t even find it odd taht the titles were hardbound.<\/p>\n
Today, of course, consumer computer books are softbound. Because the technology changes so quickly, no one really thinks about putting a hard cover on a computer book that you’re going to toss out in a few years. (That thought remains unsettling to me; it’s rare that I toss any book.)<\/p>\n
When I wrote books for TAB, they sent me the softbound editions. I don’t have any hardbound copies left. (I think I gave them away.) So it’s been years — decades, really — since I wrote a book that came out with a hard cover.<\/p>\n
![\"Figure](\"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/10M-Dummy.png\")