Definitions of paperback adjectives (of a book) bound in stiff paper or flexible cardboard. Noun, a book bound in stiff paper or flexible cardboard. I have to remind myself it was only a book - mass-market paperback, pristine condition though bought used. Synonymous adjective; paperbacked, noun soft-covered book, soft-cover, paperback book; softback Examples, The cover was what initially attracted me to this very slim paperback on the shelves. They have re-issued as a large-scale trade paperback Kurt Wilhelm's 1989 book on Strauss. Parsons says that as a rule of thumb, writers get 50p from every paperback sold and £1 for every hardback. I'm toying with setting a requirement for third year students to read this paperback over the summer. I have to remind myself it was only a book - a mass-market paperback in pristine condition though bought used. It's available in paperback; This yellowing paperback has sat on my book shelves since my student days. Each of them had the look and feel of a good trade paperback in a plain cover. Every finished paperback, every empty packet of ****, was normally followed by two or three kids rushing to sell me a replacement. It was a musty smelling paperback with yellowed pages and a bent cover. On any bus or train, it is Dan Brown's paperback that mesmerizes passengers. The paperback edition of her biography is a nicely bound and illustrated, a paperback that can be obtained at modest cost. He was reading a dog-eared Raymond Chandler paperback instead of the anatomy text he planned to study. I guess you could print the whole book and read it that way, but the cost of printing would hardly be less than that of the high quality paperback. When she got back, she quickly ran up to her room to grab the ****** romance paperback she'd brought along. The hardbound is for collectors and paperback for those who just want to read. The recently published paperback of Jackson's memoir is kinder to Bryant than the original hardback edition. I began collecting them as second-hand paperbacks and then updated them: first as new paperbacks, then as hardbacks and finally, first editions. The book brawl started fifteen years ago when mega bookstore chains deeply discounted bestsellers, as well as other hardbacks and paperbacks. I'm not talking about quickie paperbacks, the kind that publishers toss off in a matter of weeks in response to an event or news story that captures the popular imagination., bookshelves lining the walls, overfilled with paperbacks, hardcovers and textbooks.