The mass-market paperback has understandably passed into obsolescence, thanks to the inexpensive e-book. Mixed in with all the dross that was published were undervalued genre works that introduced a lot of young people to reading. An excerpt from a story about the dying dead-tree edition from Julie Bosman in the New York Times: 

“A comprehensive survey released last month by the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group revealed that while the publishing industry had expanded over all, publishers’ mass-market paperback sales had fallen 14 percent since 2008.

‘Five years ago, it was a robust market,’ said David Gernert, a literary agent whose clients include John Grisham, a perennial best seller in mass market. ‘Now it’s on the wane, and e-books have bitten a big chunk out of it.’

Fading away is a format that was both inexpensive and widely accessible — thrillers and mysteries and romances by authors like James Patterson, Stephen King, Clive Cussler and Nora Roberts that were purchased not to be proudly displayed on a living room shelf (and never read), but to be addictively devoured by devoted readers.”