Sticking Point

It used to be that the price of a book was printed on the inside front flap of the dust jacket, but nowadays bookstores increasingly put the price and other inventory information on a sticker that they glue to the back of the book.

The sticker has to remain on its book through misadventure or malfeasance, so the store really glues it on there, which sometimes makes it difficult if not impossible to remove the sticker without destroying what it’s stuck to. In recent weeks, while trying to remove the price stickers, we have scraped off part of the back cover of a paperback and cut up the dust jacket of a hardback volume. The alternative is to leave the sticker where it is, full of information in English and computer. But it’s not very attractive, and who wants to be so shoutingly reminded of the price all the time? Besides, if the book is a gift, you really must remove the price tag, and you certainly don’t want to damage the book when doing it. When the price appeared solely on the inside of the dust jacket, it was easy to snip it off before presenting the book to someone.

It’s too bad that booksellers can’t figure out a way to put the information they need on a book without harming it in the process.