That padded cover? What's the point?

[rotuts]

I recently got the cookbook "jerusalem' from my library. its my plan to get many of these fine books this way as I live in an area that has a very large and fantastic library system

back to the the topic:

why do various 'new' books have padded covers? this one does and ive gotten at least 6 or so from my library that are similar.

what gives?

seems pretty stupid to me.

Edited December 1, 2012 by rotuts (log)

[Dexter]

I was listening to a publisher being interviewed recently, and they were talking about how cook books are among their most profitable lines, not because people actually use them as guides, or cook from them, etc, but because of their value as the current "hot" coffee table books. Oversized, glossy pictures that take up both pages, etc. Seems like the puffy / padded covers are part of that packaging. Not intended to be practical, but decorative.

Just a guess.

[radtek]

Probably is intended to "pad" the price a bit.

Sort of an involuntary up-sell?

My really useful books are all scratched and written in. The corners are bent and there are some splatters here and there. Definitely not coffee-table material when it comes down to aesthetics.

[jrshaul]

Cookbooks are the new luxury supercars. You don't purchase them for use, to be thrashed for all of their worth; you purchase them for the simple sake of having them. Hence the prevalence of gorgeous cookbooks with dysfunctional recipes.

It could be worse. Apparently, Ferrari's latest effort sometimes spontaneously combusts if you actually take it to a track and thrash it. The brake rotors light the glue on fire.

Edited December 15, 2012 by jrshaul (log)

[Jon Tseng]

There aren't that many over in the UK that are padded but I do like it when it is. Add's a touch of luxury - maybe if everything was padded I might thinks its overkill. Not that practical in kitchen but works nice on the coffee table.

I guess partly it makes it look nice and partly its signalling effect "this is a luxury item. be prepared to pay more". I remember years ago I visit a company which manufactured DVD box sets and they pointed out they made quite a lot of money designing posh packaging for more expensive box sets. Same rationale applies.

Ta

J