Do you have any FS pet peeves?

That's the question... do you have any pet peeve about books produced by FS?

I was thinking that the only big one I have is B/W illustrations. I will steadfastly refuse to get the FS edition either if other Folios are illustrated by the same illustrator but in colour or if there are any decent trade editions illustrated in colour.

For example:

-While Folio LOTR is great, I think you only need an Alan Lee illustrated edition, be single volume or be a boxed set.

-I haven't bought any Wodehouse Folio books because other Paul Cox illustrated books (both Jerome K Jerome ones and My Family and Other Animals) are illustrated in colour, while all Wodehouse ones are in B/W.

-The Roald Dahl sets. Charlie and the Chocolate Fabric has a relatively garish B&N bonded leather edition, but I prefer that one as all Quentin Blake's illustrations are in colour as opposed to those on Folio Boxed Sets.

The occasional "fake" slipcase (War Horse, Red House etc.).

By B/N I assume you mean black and white?
If so, I'm with you for such cases as Sharpe's but in general my favorite illustrators are B&W (Eichenberg, Dore). Specific to FS Uncle Silas comes to mind...

If B/N means something else I'm sorry - I need to be educated on the acronym :)

Being a bit of a completist, when FS prints one or two works from a great writer, say a Cather or Balzac, wish they would follow thru with more; if not the complete works, at least the writers other major efforts.

>2 bacchus.: The occasional "fake" slipcase (War Horse, Red House etc.).

Ah, you mean the "new, lightweight slipcases". They only did them for that one year then were sufficiently persuaded not to try them again. "The Gastronomic Me" was another one. There may have been another but it's eluding me for the moment.

This, right here...



That said I think they've gotten better with it from what I can see of some more recent publications.

>2 bacchus.: yep, black and white. Sorry I wrote the acronym I use in Spanish! I'm going to correct it.

When I beg and beg them on social media and various suggestions boxes for a particular title, and when they finally do it, it's gaudy, or excessively large, the illustrations are hideous, or it costs twice as much as what I'd budgeted for it in my mind. Sometimes it's all 4.

My first peeve is slipcases in general (the plain dark ones rather than the decorative slipcases). They are ugly and before long become dirty and scuffed. Yes - they protect the books in transit but on the shelf they look heavy and hide the beauty of the books. I know this is controversial.

My other peeve are paper sides which scuff and deteriorate on their sharp corners - particularly when removing and replacing the books in their slipcases. Which neatly brings me back to my first peeve - slipcases.

It’s a common one, but the use of a standard FS logo on all books, even when it clashes with the design. And even on reprints which used to have a bespoke logo or font.

It’s completely unnecessary, FS is not Penguin.

>4 folio_books: Good to hear they stopped using. In any case I managed to snatch half of them. Behind the Wall?

Not putting the book title on the slipcase spine

>9 Uppernorwood:

This is my biggest pet peeve!

An example is the Dune LE where they replaced the symmetrical usage of the SE with the FS logo so the spine looks objectively worse! Thankfully, it is in a box so you can't see it.

One thing that I cannot understand is the American Gods spine. It is already busy, then they add both the fs logo and the words "Folio Society" above them! I love American Gods but I cannot justify buying the book with such a messy spine.

Can't think of any instances beyond the Tom Holland series but switching binding material between volumes. Turned me off on Persian Fire and Dynasty.

Also, when they announce a title I'd love to pick up, but then I find out it's printed in China.

My wife said "when they are delivered" for her FS pet peeve. Not my view!

>9 Uppernorwood: "standard FS logo on all books"

+1 to that.

A foolish consistency...

>9 Uppernorwood: Same here!

I don't mind Black and White illustrations, as long as they add to the mood. But, yes, some Folio books beg for more vivid illustrations, yet all they could do are those B&W ones.

>9 Uppernorwood:
I too agree. The standard FS logo is inappropriate for some books. The previous idea of matching the logo to the style of the book was much better.

Oh I'll add another one since we're nitpicking :) Tough love.

I don't quite appreciate the "silent" China reprints (Catch-22, Nicholas & Alexandra, LOTR come to mind). It's not that is unusual for reprints to differ (leather/no leather, different slipcases etc.) but differences are usually easy to spot.

I'm not necessarily saying that printing in China is bad but, at the very least, they use different paper which is a fair point for someone to choose one print from the other. Makes me worry a bit about the recent marketing jabs on "first printing" (Dostoyevsky Best Stories).

>10 bacchus.: Behind the Wall?

Yes, that's the one. I knew there was four!

On the whole they are an excellent company, but here are my biggest three:

- Random approach to marketing (agree with >18 strangenews:). Why spend years crafting a stunning LE then just randomly drop it on the website, saving all the fanfare for later? And the pre collection stack guessing game...think that's getting a bit tired now.

- Chinese editions/reprints. I know this is opening a can of worms, but from personal experience I'm convinced that the quality of these is on the whole lower than editions from the European printers. I wouldn't mind this so much if they were open about it, for example listing printing location for all titles on their website. But my main peeve is that they clearly know these editions are bad for business and so try to hide the fact. I believe they've damaged their brand by doing this.

- Not delivering to small EU countries. I know there were various excuses made for this, but a year into Brexit and I've yet to come across any other company which makes this kind of discrimination, either in the UK or elsewhere (I'd be interested to know if anyone else has). No idea why, for the countries for which they have an issue paying the VAT in advance for, why they can't just pop the parcels in the post and let the recipient sort out any VAT on receipt. This is what all other small publishers I buy from do.

ETA: and I forgot one: answering all queries online with 'I'll pass on the suggestion for you'. Man, that's annoying :-)

Now if the delightful (to me) image in >5 wongie: had been of more recent Folio books it would have captured exactly the only peeve as such that I recall having, viz. the replacement of the Reynolds Stone Folio Society emblem.

"The new "S" won't stay as a letter to me, I keep thinking of it as some manner of hook, not quite a fishhook and not quite the sort of hook that goes with a picture rail, but with something of the ungentle air of the former." was I see my comment in 2013 when the dire transformation occurred.

I'm another who isn't generally interested when the FS publishes just one volume or a few of any worthwhile (to me) author of whom a good collected edition exists, but that's too large and insoluble a matter to file under peeves.

A great thread! I love FS (both their back catalogue and many of their newer offerings)...but a few things immediately come to mind:

1) Inconsistency of including the short biographies of author, illustrator and writer of the introductions: Why are these included in some books but not in others? Personally, I like them and would like to see them in all FS books.

2) Placement of illustrations: Illustrations should support and enhance the text. Placing illustrations several pages before the event they are depicting feels like an intrusion to me.

3) Gold flaking: I understand that to some extent this may be inevitable, but on some titles it feels like beyond a joke (Hornblower sets!). If the technique cannot be applied successfully and with reasonable durability it would be better to scale back the gold.

4) Lack of information about paper type and print location on the website. For the prices that FS asks, this should be readily available information at the time of purchase.

A few from me below - but one prominent one that bothered me recently when reading The Amber Spyglass was illustrations appearing several pages before the scene in the text they are depicting. I'm sure there is a practical reason why this happens but it can make an illustration appear nonsensical for at least a few pages. (As I typed this I realised GardenOfForkingPaths beat me to it above!)

Others:
- standard FS logo (or worse changing midway through a series like with the Dawkins books)
- fairly drab slipcases which don't match the book quality (more like Anansi Boys please!)
- mystery around reprints or not

What, no one has complained yet about the Chinese slipcases that appear to be made out of asbestos (e.g., A History of Ancient Greece)?

>25 podaniel:

Is it anything like the pulped and reconstituted egg carton that is Diversity of Life's slipcase? I really loathe that one.

everything said in >7 chrisrsprague:, and another little thing that annoys me is when the illustration doesn't correspond to the description in the text, e.g. different hair colour, clothes, etc. I don't mind if they are placed too early as I know they are often printed on a different kind of paper and can only be bound in after signatures.

Why are the books so unnecessarily large??
So much empty space on the margins just makes then heavier, more unwieldy, and more expensive to ship.
And I don't think it looks better on the shelf. More gaudy, if anything.

I'm with Hanno on that. Books are meant to be read - some FS editions are so tall or heavy that they cannot be held or won't fit upright on shelves. Recent examples are the Doctor Zhivago limited edition (too thick and heavy) and the ridiculous Riddley Walker (way too tall)!

Another peeve is FS abandoning the use of original lithographic illustrations bleeding off the page. These were the norm in early FS editions but have almost been completely abandoned now.

Agree about the size. I care way more about the reading experience, which is definitely impacted by overly big books.

To each their own, but I like a larger book and the space around the text adds to the readability with my old eyes.

1. Only printing rehashes or very expensive versions - eg LEs - of classics (a recent phenomenon).
2. Oversized books - can be appropriate, but all too often not.
3. Not so much issues over B&W vs colour, I have no issue over B&W especially if a top notch engraver, but paucity full stop. The quantity of illustration seems to be, shall we say, rather limited at times; the Sharpes are simply cheapskate. I have absolutely no issue with their placement of illustrations - it's been like that in books (not just FS) for ever.

>12 Jobasha: I never noticed that, but it is ridiculous!

I thought this was the approach for all books now, but the Anglo Saxons has a lovey bespoke FS logo, and that book is only a couple of years old.

The standard logo is fine for many books, but I just don’t get the desire to crowbar it in everywhere. FS aren’t a mainstream brand which requires that kind of instant recognition. The USP is that each book is a bespoke design.

Some of the older books don’t reference Folio Society on the spine at all!

>24 FrankCauldhame: >27 overthemoon: >32 Willoyd:

Ah, thanks for shedding more light on the illustration placement issue. That makes more sense if there are practical reasons for illustrations appearing ahead of the scenes of they depict, or as >32 Willoyd: says, it's been something common to many illustrated books throughout history. Armed with this knowledge I think I will probably feel more forgiving of it when it arises. Well, there's one less pet peeve for me :)

Completely agree on the quantity of illustrations being a bit disappointing. Even looking beyond Sharpe, it seems like around 6 plus frontispiece is the norm these days. I wonder how much each illustration adds to FS' costs?

I completely agree with those who think that many FS books are unnecessarily (and unpleasantly) large. That's really uncomfortable and uses up unnecessary space.

Echoing that the standard logo being stamped onto every new book is my #1 peeve. It has put me off some purchases when it's egregiously unsuited to the edition.

>37 wwfield: can never understand this as it’s not a recognisable (known) logo, unless you are already aware of the society. In which case it doesn’t matter.

>38 Juniper_tree: actually if you already aware of the society it does matter, because brand consistency increases consumer confidence, all else equal. In this case, however, all else is not equal, since the single logo decreases the quality of some offerings by harming the aesthetics of the product (at least for some customers).

But the general idea that brands should not worry about logo consistency because "it doesn't matter" for people who "are already aware of" the brand is wrong.

After all, if there was more than one logo, how would the true believers know what tattoo to get? (My tongue is firmly in cheek, in case that doesn't come through over the Internet.)

An example of the standard FS logo not working is The Handmaid's Tale. It jars with the aesthetic of the spine. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest just has 'Folio' written on the spine in the same scratchy font as the title - it looks great.

They keep making me spend more money. How very ;-)

The logo thing is a bit irritating, but not so irritating that it stops me buying lots of their books.

>39 abysswalker: I was also confused the statement. The entire idea is that it presents a consistent brand.

>33 Uppernorwood: Having the standard logo on all books is the rule now, with the only exception I’ve seen being books in series with others published before the rule was put in place. Anglo Saxons is part of a long running series.

The uniform logo on non-matching spines and the inability to pay in pounds are my two pet peeves.

>43 wdripp:
Yes, forgot about not being able to pay in Pounds Sterling. That would help a great deal with the cost of the books not only in Australia, but I suspect in the USA and Canada as well. They could still add on any unavoidable taxes, and these too could be paid in GBP.

>43 wdripp:, 44, I hate that they have different logins for UK and ROW, that I can never stay logged in, and that the prices are different depending on where you live.

>44 wcarter: This more than anything. It's honestly what has led me away from Folio and I now only buy LEs that I really want and regular books during sales. I bought Dante LE which I am quite happy about but have been on the fence regarding Aurora Australis. If I was able to pay in Pounds I would buy it, but it has gotten too much paying such a premium for years that it's frankly off-putting. Sadly because of this practice by Folio I have gotten into other fine press books and would rather spend my money at Thornwillow, Arion, Foolscap, Barbarian, LOA, NYRB amongst others who do not practice as Folio does.

>40 nightdances:
I was a bit confused about the logo on the Handmaid’s Tale and checked the version out on the website. Seems they changed it on the reprints, because my own Handmaid’s Tale has FOLIO SOCIETY on the bottom written in the same font as Margaret Atwood at the top.

Funny thing is, my reprint of A Brief History of Time doesn’t have the regular logo…

>7 chrisrsprague:

I genuinely wonder from time to time how these presses manage to find such atrocious artwork. Many are the editions that I'd have shelled out big money for, but for how turned off I was by the art.