A paper presented to the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, April 22, 1994. Yet bibliographers haven't devoted much of their attention to the artifacts produced by that Revolution. Bibliographers are constantly defending the purpose of their work from people who suggest that all books are the same, and even if they aren't, the details are really too minor to be bothered with.
Bibliographers know better.
For one thing, not all paperbacks are reprints. There are certainly plenty of reasons for bibliographers to stay away from paperback books. Second, the sheer number of paperback books would seem to be overwhelming. Suddenly it would seem that one needs an entire staff of bibliographers just to deal with a few entries of a descriptive bibliography. Paperbacks were and are designed to be temporary, disposable items, and readers usually treat them as such.