On Monday Kara had wanted some books to read and I thought it would be a good idea to buy her one of these new books marked as “Specially designed for comfortable reading.” The book was prominently available at Wal-mart for $7.44. I figured she would be in an uncomfortable position for awhile after surgery so this type of book might be welcomed. Her verdict?

They suck.

These books are not as wide and taller in size but if you open the book the text has really thin margins at the end that force having to pull open the book to read which feels like more strain on your hands than a traditional-sized book.

Welshrogue is equally perplexed:

I have never had any problems at all reading a paperback, other than the odd one that I couldn’t read for content or writing style issues. Now paperbacks will be taller, so anyone who has custom book shelves might just have to reinvent them!

Must say I do agree. Who designed these books? The book in question, a medical thriller by the author of Coma, Robin Cook (probably totally inappropriate for anybody going to the hospital), has a guarantee clause from publisher Penguin. To receive a refund we would need to return the book by October 1, 2006 with the receipt. Don’t think we’ll be doing that, this one has bookmooch written on it.

They might think about adding the letters “un” to the word comfortable.