In this Oprah Alert at EarlyWord there is this line:
Unfortunately, the book is spiral bound, so libraries do not own it. Libraries do own her previous title, however, Give It Up!: My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less
Here is the WorldCat record for the book. Around 50 libraries have the book.
How big of a factor is it that the book is spiral bound?
If the book was not spiral bound how many more libraries would have owned the book at this point?
Now that the book is going to be highly requested how will the spiral bound issue play into whether your library would purchase the book?
we would never buy spiral bound, unless…
some idiot asks for it. spiral bounds last about 3 circs before the pages come out. but if a patron asks for it, the pages could be formed from liverwurst and we would buy it.
so come on Oprah, pick a book printed entirely on strips bacon!
Bind the book
Our library is able to get books bound with a library binding for a few dollars. Why not just buy a couple copies and send them to be bound? A couple days later you will have books that will last for years.
Professionally bound books certainly last
And they last longer than hardcover books being sold today. I am currently reading a rebound paperback book that was published in 1964 right now. Except for the yellowing of the pages, that rebound paperback has outlasted the original hardcover edition in the same library.
Buy ’em, then bind ’em
We buy them when we have to, take care of the first few circs, then bind them. The ones that are truly spiral-bound actually do surprisingly well. It’s those flat plastic fake-spiral-bindings that do so poorly, and often enough, the plastic breaks before the pages tear. And, we’ve gone the other way, too. Some books are bound so poorly, with pages that have no margins, that we don’t bother trying to repair the binding when it fails (sometimes immediately). We have a printer drill it and put on a spiral binding.