February 11, 2026 at 5:57 PM
This is a great thread about books. The form matters. The price point matters. Who is actually buying them matters.
Maybe we still need spinner racks of cheap paperbacks, sitting in the corner of drugstores.
Maybe we still need spinner racks of cheap paperbacks, sitting in the corner of drugstores.
I've said this before but I truly believe we could revitalize YA and kidlit overnight by switching to MMPB and paperback first. Kids want paperbacks! It is by far the biggest request I get from teen readers.
hello this is the official petition to bring back mass market paperbacks!! mmpbs are good actually and everyone should do them!! i think esp romantasy readers would really love that shit! and you can still spray those edges!!! bring back mass market paperbacks thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 11, 2026 at 5:06 PM
This is a great thread about books. The form matters. The price point matters. Who is actually buying them matters.
Maybe we still need spinner racks of cheap paperbacks, sitting in the corner of drugstores.
Maybe we still need spinner racks of cheap paperbacks, sitting in the corner of drugstores.
Why Will You Die? Brian & Wilkinson (1885) by W. N. Bryant.
Source: SMU Central University Libraries / Flickr: The Commons
https://pdimagearchive.org/images/6a6d5836-9951-49cf-b3ca-b7aeff6bafaa
#questions #advertisements #drugstores #communication #adverts #art #publicdomain
Source: SMU Central University Libraries / Flickr: The Commons
https://pdimagearchive.org/images/6a6d5836-9951-49cf-b3ca-b7aeff6bafaa
#questions #advertisements #drugstores #communication #adverts #art #publicdomain
February 11, 2026 at 2:32 PM
Why Will You Die? Brian & Wilkinson (1885) by W. N. Bryant.
Source: SMU Central University Libraries / Flickr: The Commons
https://pdimagearchive.org/images/6a6d5836-9951-49cf-b3ca-b7aeff6bafaa
#questions #advertisements #drugstores #communication #adverts #art #publicdomain
Source: SMU Central University Libraries / Flickr: The Commons
https://pdimagearchive.org/images/6a6d5836-9951-49cf-b3ca-b7aeff6bafaa
#questions #advertisements #drugstores #communication #adverts #art #publicdomain
#OtD 10 Feb 1960, Black students began using sit-ins to demonstrate against whites-only lunch counters at drugstores across Raleigh, North Carolina; the drugstores responded by closing the counters. Read a few contemporary accounts here: stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8190...
February 10, 2026 at 8:10 PM
#OtD 10 Feb 1960, Black students began using sit-ins to demonstrate against whites-only lunch counters at drugstores across Raleigh, North Carolina; the drugstores responded by closing the counters. Read a few contemporary accounts here: stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8190...
Boy, do I remember those racks in drugstores. There's a dollar store near me that still has one.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/b...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/b...
So Long to Cheap Books You Could Fit in Your Pocket
www.nytimes.com
February 9, 2026 at 2:18 PM
Boy, do I remember those racks in drugstores. There's a dollar store near me that still has one.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/b...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/b...
I spent a lot of time at drugstores looking at those spinner racks
February 8, 2026 at 9:43 PM
I spent a lot of time at drugstores looking at those spinner racks
My nearest station has like 5 drugstores around it, but NONE of them have lube or condoms anymore…
They used to have onaholes too, but that whole shelf just disappeared completely.
Is Japan seriously banning sex or something?? 😭💦
They used to have onaholes too, but that whole shelf just disappeared completely.
Is Japan seriously banning sex or something?? 😭💦
February 8, 2026 at 4:41 AM
My nearest station has like 5 drugstores around it, but NONE of them have lube or condoms anymore…
They used to have onaholes too, but that whole shelf just disappeared completely.
Is Japan seriously banning sex or something?? 😭💦
They used to have onaholes too, but that whole shelf just disappeared completely.
Is Japan seriously banning sex or something?? 😭💦
Of course, once MMPBs started selling in hundreds of thousands in drugstores, train stations, etc., carriage-trade bookstores decided they’d take them after all.
I digress. It’s a long story. 4/4
I digress. It’s a long story. 4/4
February 7, 2026 at 4:24 PM
Of course, once MMPBs started selling in hundreds of thousands in drugstores, train stations, etc., carriage-trade bookstores decided they’d take them after all.
I digress. It’s a long story. 4/4
I digress. It’s a long story. 4/4
Look, I have a ton of vacation photos of liquor aisles in drugstores because I turn into a rube when I walk into some foreign CVS and they sell vodka. (I am in SC where only a few years ago they passed a law allowing grocery stores to sell beer and wine on Sunday. No demon rum, of course.)
February 7, 2026 at 2:13 AM
Look, I have a ton of vacation photos of liquor aisles in drugstores because I turn into a rube when I walk into some foreign CVS and they sell vodka. (I am in SC where only a few years ago they passed a law allowing grocery stores to sell beer and wine on Sunday. No demon rum, of course.)
“Iyou could shove it in your purse or your pocket...There were, say, a few hundred book stores in the US but there were thousands of little drugstores+ bus stations+so on in small towns.That’s why they’re called mass market. There was a much more robust system for getting these books out there.”
A eulogy for the mass market paperback, "one of the most brilliant technologies in the history of the world."
So Long to Cheap Books You Could Fit in Your Pocket
www.nytimes.com
February 6, 2026 at 2:38 PM
“Iyou could shove it in your purse or your pocket...There were, say, a few hundred book stores in the US but there were thousands of little drugstores+ bus stations+so on in small towns.That’s why they’re called mass market. There was a much more robust system for getting these books out there.”
@tnh.nielsenhayden.com has a great discussion somewhere in her collected essays of the crucial role of the paperback swivel rack thing in drugstores (or in the equivalent for provincial Ireland in the 1980s, newsagents) as a gateway drug for reading.
February 6, 2026 at 2:17 PM
@tnh.nielsenhayden.com has a great discussion somewhere in her collected essays of the crucial role of the paperback swivel rack thing in drugstores (or in the equivalent for provincial Ireland in the 1980s, newsagents) as a gateway drug for reading.
What's more infuriating is that the drugstores chains choose (and are allowed) to put homeopathic scam products on the same shelves, mixed in with real medicine.
February 5, 2026 at 2:16 AM
What's more infuriating is that the drugstores chains choose (and are allowed) to put homeopathic scam products on the same shelves, mixed in with real medicine.
'With superfast Wi-Fi, spotless public spaces, and free face scans in drugstores, the South Korean capital Seoul seems like the city of the future. But behind the glossy facade lurk extreme gender inequality and toxic beauty ideals.'
www.groene.nl/artikel/stra... (Dutch, paywall)
www.groene.nl/artikel/stra... (Dutch, paywall)
In het vrouwvijandige Seoul heeft de reproductie van alles en iedereen de echte werkelijkheid verdrongen
Met hypersnelle wifi, smetteloze openbare ruimtes en gratis face scans in drogisterijen lijkt de Zuid-Koreaanse hoofdstad Seoul de stad van de toekomst. Maar achter de glanzende façade schuilen extrem...
www.groene.nl
February 4, 2026 at 4:23 PM
'With superfast Wi-Fi, spotless public spaces, and free face scans in drugstores, the South Korean capital Seoul seems like the city of the future. But behind the glossy facade lurk extreme gender inequality and toxic beauty ideals.'
www.groene.nl/artikel/stra... (Dutch, paywall)
www.groene.nl/artikel/stra... (Dutch, paywall)
And I -love- clever adaptations between furs and modern expectations. Unsure what to call it.
To me it's in the same vein as species-specific clothing or raptors/birds finding crop-stones in common drugstores, finding answers to what little problems or inconveniences that'd realistically arise.
To me it's in the same vein as species-specific clothing or raptors/birds finding crop-stones in common drugstores, finding answers to what little problems or inconveniences that'd realistically arise.
February 4, 2026 at 7:05 AM
And I -love- clever adaptations between furs and modern expectations. Unsure what to call it.
To me it's in the same vein as species-specific clothing or raptors/birds finding crop-stones in common drugstores, finding answers to what little problems or inconveniences that'd realistically arise.
To me it's in the same vein as species-specific clothing or raptors/birds finding crop-stones in common drugstores, finding answers to what little problems or inconveniences that'd realistically arise.
Emergency contraceptives to help prevent unintended pregnancy became available over-the-counter in Japan for the first time, allowing the drugs to be purchased at about 5,400 pharmacies and drugstores nationwide. 👉 ebx.sh/VLPdSE
February 3, 2026 at 1:45 AM
Emergency contraceptives to help prevent unintended pregnancy became available over-the-counter in Japan for the first time, allowing the drugs to be purchased at about 5,400 pharmacies and drugstores nationwide. 👉 ebx.sh/VLPdSE
I remember thinking back in like 2018 or something how it was only mentioned very briefly on the news, if at all and how much of a public disservice it was to not make a huge deal out of it. like the drugstores ultimately deciding whether insurance will pay for the drugs +you're paying BOTH anyway
February 2, 2026 at 3:31 PM
I remember thinking back in like 2018 or something how it was only mentioned very briefly on the news, if at all and how much of a public disservice it was to not make a huge deal out of it. like the drugstores ultimately deciding whether insurance will pay for the drugs +you're paying BOTH anyway
Spreading riot agent disinfo is fed posting.
February 2, 2026 at 2:27 PM
Spreading riot agent disinfo is fed posting.
Emergency contraceptives to help prevent unintended pregnancy became available over-the-counter in Japan for the first time, allowing the drugs to be purchased at about 5,400 pharmacies and drugstores nationwide.
Morning-after pill becomes available over the counter, in a first for Japan
Under the new rules, only the person who will take the medication may buy it, and it must be taken in the presence of a pharmacist after receiving an explanation.
ebx.sh
February 2, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Emergency contraceptives to help prevent unintended pregnancy became available over-the-counter in Japan for the first time, allowing the drugs to be purchased at about 5,400 pharmacies and drugstores nationwide.
Drugstores are plagiarizing my scholarship? How dare they!
February 2, 2026 at 1:15 AM
Drugstores are plagiarizing my scholarship? How dare they!
There was a CVS in downtown Monterey.
It would be a fun place to check out.
Many colorful characters in downtown!
Don't know if it still is?
CVS seems to be closing many stores?
The one in Monterey has been several different drugstores.
It would be a fun place to check out.
Many colorful characters in downtown!
Don't know if it still is?
CVS seems to be closing many stores?
The one in Monterey has been several different drugstores.
February 1, 2026 at 11:32 PM
There was a CVS in downtown Monterey.
It would be a fun place to check out.
Many colorful characters in downtown!
Don't know if it still is?
CVS seems to be closing many stores?
The one in Monterey has been several different drugstores.
It would be a fun place to check out.
Many colorful characters in downtown!
Don't know if it still is?
CVS seems to be closing many stores?
The one in Monterey has been several different drugstores.
Can we stop locking everything up in drugstores? I waited a while to be helped and I think the poor girl had just walked in from her lunch break cause she was running down the aisles with her coat on.
February 1, 2026 at 7:50 PM
Can we stop locking everything up in drugstores? I waited a while to be helped and I think the poor girl had just walked in from her lunch break cause she was running down the aisles with her coat on.
Certainly not on the Bloor-Danforth line! They would block the common folk’s access to (checks notes) single-storey liquor stores and drugstores.
February 1, 2026 at 4:16 PM
Certainly not on the Bloor-Danforth line! They would block the common folk’s access to (checks notes) single-storey liquor stores and drugstores.
These Imperial Corporations are bad for business.
3,000 drugstores closed after a couple companies consolidated almost all the smaller ones into mega-drugstore conglomerates and then collapsed.
A bunch of large companies are more stable and better for buyers than one monolithic monster company.
3,000 drugstores closed after a couple companies consolidated almost all the smaller ones into mega-drugstore conglomerates and then collapsed.
A bunch of large companies are more stable and better for buyers than one monolithic monster company.
January 30, 2026 at 1:39 AM
These Imperial Corporations are bad for business.
3,000 drugstores closed after a couple companies consolidated almost all the smaller ones into mega-drugstore conglomerates and then collapsed.
A bunch of large companies are more stable and better for buyers than one monolithic monster company.
3,000 drugstores closed after a couple companies consolidated almost all the smaller ones into mega-drugstore conglomerates and then collapsed.
A bunch of large companies are more stable and better for buyers than one monolithic monster company.
Like these are the books you end up finding in a library or a used shop for $5.
Not everyone knows how to find books online. Libraries are perfect when you can get to them (and if they have what you're looking for).
Not everyone knows how to find books online. Libraries are perfect when you can get to them (and if they have what you're looking for).
January 29, 2026 at 10:36 PM
Like these are the books you end up finding in a library or a used shop for $5.
Not everyone knows how to find books online. Libraries are perfect when you can get to them (and if they have what you're looking for).
Not everyone knows how to find books online. Libraries are perfect when you can get to them (and if they have what you're looking for).