25 May, 2021
2021-5-25 6:58:01 PM UTC
These don't show up often on Tolkien books, but deckle-edged page blocks (also called uncut or untrimmed) were once the standard, and for a long time still used on purpose as a design choice to give a book a more antiquarian or highbrow feel.
Once lots of Amazon buyers started returning them as "defective" and leaving one-star reviews, Amazon changed how they displayed books with deckle edging, and their all-powerful algorithms started dropping them lower and lower in search results. To the point where now almost all publishers have stopped using deckle edging at all.
https://www.spearswms.com/deckle-edge-books-defence-leith/
25 May, 2021
2021-5-25 7:15:24 PM UTC
I quite like them and have never had any problem with them on new books. It is a shame that they are stopping them.
25 May, 2021
2021-5-25 7:32:54 PM UTC
Oh! I know about these!
They're on Tolkienbooks.us, as they cover Canadian editions. They may also be on Tolkienbooks.net. They're paperbacks of
The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and
The Return of the King that feature a very similar - if not identical - cover to their hardback cousins. They have the deckle-edged paper, and the front and back covers fold out, much like a dustjacket has flaps at the front and back. (I believe the term is called 'French Flaps').
Here's the link for
The Hobbit (the other titles appear following the info) :
https://www.tolkienbooks.us/ca/hob/the-hobbit-2010I have a few deckle-edged, non-Tolkien books.
The Sagas of Icelanders, the Robert Fagles boxed set of
The Odyssey, The Iliad and
The Aeneid), as well as a few books by Neil Gaiman.
25 May, 2021
2021-5-25 8:46:43 PM UTC
Is this apocryphal? I've never actually seen an Amazon-era book with (manufactured) deckled edges. This story of Amazon customers is also quite old I think; it's even referenced in the Wiki article on deckling, citing an article from 2012.
When did Amazon introduce ratings &/or feedback? Anyone recall?
25 May, 2021
2021-5-25 8:49:10 PM UTC
HarperCollins had a deckle-edged paperback LoTR set, printed in the USA (I assume for the Canadian market). Looked like the UK editions (
http://tolkienbooks.net/php/details2.php?id=368), except for the edges. Saw a set in Queenstown Airport and never seen them since.
25 May, 2021
2021-5-25 9:19:50 PM UTC
Khamûl wrote:
Is this apocryphal? I've never actually seen an Amazon-era book with (manufactured) deckled edges. This story of Amazon customers is also quite old I think; it's even referenced in the Wiki article on deckling, citing an article from 2012.
When did Amazon introduce ratings &/or feedback? Anyone recall?
A quick google search comes up with tons of bad reviews and amazon message board posts as recently as 2-3 years ago with readers complaining about untrimmed edges as manufacturing defects.
(And I should probably qualify my own post - deckled edges are specifically for hand-made paper, and untrimmed is more correct for modern machine-made books. Amazon refers to all of them as deckle though).
25 May, 2021
2021-5-25 10:54:59 PM UTC
Urulókë wrote:
Khamûl wrote:
(And I should probably qualify my own post - deckled edges are specifically for hand-made paper, and untrimmed is more correct for modern machine-made books. Amazon refers to all of them as deckle though).
I'm not sure if I understand what you or these Amazon articles are actually saying.
Real deckling derived from hand-made paper hasn't been a feature of book-making for literally hundreds of years. This is related to paper-making not book-making. Other than niche publishers (or really expensive editions) not many books/editions are printed and bound on hand-made paper. But machine-made paper could be made with deckled edges (a contrivance, since machine-made paper is generally made in rolls, and any rough edges would only ever be present down the lengths) for the purposes of binding into books where these edges would be preserved. I don't think anyone would regard these as "fake" deckled edges, unless you're a total purist. However books made with un-deckled paper and then deckled in some manner, after binding, is something else entirely. It's not really to do with being trimmed or untrimmed, it's really whether the paper was deckled to begin with; the paper that was then used to bind the book.
So, I'm not clear what people have meant when they've complained of untrimmed edges. Particularly if these complaints were from this century. This doesn't sound like actual deckling (in any form) at all.
25 May, 2021
2021-5-25 10:57:01 PM UTC
Khamûl wrote:
So, I'm not clear what people have meant when they've complained of untrimmed edges. That doesn't sounds like actual deckling at all.
It isn't - it is a stylistic offering on some books, nothing more. The HC LoTR paperbacks that I saw with looked quite nice. The cover was a little oversized to account for the edges. I wish I'd bought them, tbh.
25 May, 2021
2021-5-25 11:09:29 PM UTC
25 May, 2021
2021-5-25 11:20:38 PM UTC
This is sad. I am a fan of deckle-edged books, they tend to be better-bound and have better quality paper.
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