Paperbacks are the new status object

Second-hand paperbacks with cracked spines are selling for more than new hardbacks in some London shops. Collectors call it patina.

The appeal is partly design: the covers of the 1960s and 70s are some of the best graphic design of the century. It is also partly proof: a worn paperback has clearly been read.

A cracked spine is the only honest review.

Cheap, light and visible

For years, the paperback looked like the format that would lose. E-readers were lighter, phones were already in every pocket, and audiobooks let people read while doing something else. Instead, the cheapest way to own a book has become the one people most like to be seen with.

Part of the reason is that a phone hides what you are reading and a paperback does not. On a train or in a café, the cover is a small public statement.

The look

Publishers have noticed. Classics are being reissued in plain, single-colour covers designed to look good in a hand or on a table. Second-hand shops say young customers buy older editions for the cover as much as the text.

It is easy to be cynical about reading as decoration. But most people we spoke to had started reading again because of it, and finished more books than the year before.

The case for a battered copy

A paperback is meant to be used. Fold the corner, crack the spine, write in the margin, leave it on a train for someone else. The ones that look best on a shelf are the ones that have clearly been read.