Compact Editions!!!

The lit guy on the panel discussing this last night had (predictably enough) smoke coming out of his ears about all this. For some reason I don't think this is as bad as the negative reaction - prob to do with me as a fairly 'bad' reader of fiction, as in I'm fairly happy to read things, not knowing quite what's going on, and at times when the book ends it means the pages have simply run out. I actually find that I 'edit' the bits I like and pay no attention to other bits, this is my approach to a lot of post-1950s serialist/post-serially derived music that I listen to. Except this is pre-edited for me.

By crudely editing to get these skeleton-of-the-story editions is not so bad. One of the contributors to that panel discussion said gave a 'oh its obv to appeal to those who want to smugly boast that they've 'read' Moby Dick' and while that impulse could be what's driving this, the other effect is to allow yourself to get into it, so you could follow the skeletal ed by reding the actual edition (more of yr life lost than it would otherwise have been! :-)).

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if, in the coming years, other editions of the same bks were churned out where diff aspects of the story are given more of a priority than others. Or maybe it will all crash badly...

What's the difference between "compact editions" and abridged books? A brand? Or is there something different going on, ah, philosophically? I.e. in what they choose to cut etc...

Don't quie know what the diff is..

marketing is the difference.

i watched this too, julio, and kept wondering why they were talking about the 1/2 time books as if they were some kind of new phenomenon. tho' i suppose abridged versions havent been sold (in the UK at least) for many years that i know of.

They never sell books of crossword puzzles on the strength of how many fewer pages there are than there could be. No. With crossword books it is always The super Gigantic Book of Puzzles.

Maybe they should do the same thing with the novels - "Anna Karenina's Super Gigantic Book of Adultery & Suicide (& Puzzles)"

i would reread anna karenina if some of the pages were replaced with word games. i would enjoy that.

haha ok -- never even looked for things like abridged versions!

How about 100 pages of gravity's rainbow then the other 700 made up of Sudoku puzzles. I think its the bk for this kind of thing.