No dustjackets required

from The Guardian UK

What is the point of dustjackets? The clue can't be in the name: on the shelf, the most dust-prone part of a book is the top, which a jacket doesn't cover (these days, anyway). Decoratively, too, they are a recipe for disappointment. Bring home your expensive new hardback, lift up its gorgeous plumage, and underneath – in the UK at least – you're liable to find rough-textured and drably covered board, with the only graphic element a cruder reproduction of the lettering on the spine of the jacket. In America, land of the deckle edge, your chances of a pleasant surprise are greater; but the jacket remains an unnecessary and vulnerable encumbrance. That, at least, is how it has always seemed to me – and some in the book trade appear to be reaching the same conclusion.

Jacketless hardbacks with cover art printed on them (the technical term is "casewrapped") were once a format reserved for rough environments. It was the style for set texts to be handed down across generations of schoolchildren, and workshop manuals to be kept within reach of greasy fingers. Now, however, it seems to be becoming an increasingly popular option for literary fiction.