1.   At the booth run by another Bertelsmann unit, a two-month-old machine about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle was turning out hardcover books.

2.   After receiving hundreds of complaints about the high price of hardcover books, Oprah was considerate enough to include some paperbacks among her selections.

3.   Fiction and nonfiction are kept separate for hardcover books but mixed for trade paperback and mass market.

4.   For one thing, higher-priced hardcover books generally outsell paperbacks online because the discounts applied to hardcover books are more likely to outweigh the shipping charges.

5.   Issues that seem especially keepsake-worthy are being expanded into hardcover books.

6.   Stacks of hardcover books were given away like so much Silicon Valley software.

7.   That, after all, explains why airlines charge business travelers more than vacationers, and why hardcover books cost three times as much as the paperbacks.

8.   Getting a traditional set of hardcover books would have cost about the same.

9.   The yellow plastic pouches, about the size and weight of hardcover books, are filled with peanut butter, strawberry jam, crackers and beans with tomato sauce.