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Small-size books which could fit in a reader's pocket have existed from early times. For example, the early 8th-century 
Small-size books which could fit in a reader's pocket have existed from early times. For example, the early 8th-century gospel book
A Gospel Book, Evangelion, or Book of the Gospels ( Greek: , ''Evangélion'') is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament – normally all four – centering on the life of Jesus of Nazar ...
known as the St Cuthbert Gospel
The St Cuthbert Gospel, also known as the Stonyhurst Gospel or the St Cuthbert Gospel of St John, is an early 8th-century pocket gospel book, written in Latin. Its finely decorated leather binding is the earliest known Western bookbinding to ...
has a page size of only . However, the concept of producing a specific pocket edition of a book
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this phys ...
dates to the 20th century. It refers to an edition that has been altered to fit in the reader's pocket
A pocket is a bag- or envelope-like receptacle either fastened to or inserted in an article of clothing to hold small items. Pockets are also attached to luggage, backpacks, and similar items. In older usage, a pocket was a separate small bag ...
, usually by using thinner paper
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre e ...
, smaller print
Printing is the process for reproducing text and images using a master form or template
Print or printing may also refer to:
Publishing
* Canvas print, the result of an image printed onto canvas which is often stretched, or gallery-wrapped, o ...
, and abbreviation of the text
Text may refer to:
Written word
* Text (literary theory), any object that can be read, including:
**Religious text, a writing that a religious tradition considers to be sacred
**Text, a verse or passage from scripture used in expository preachin ...
:
Pocket editions have been criticized as "not really suitable for library use", with the recommendation that "those bought to cover gaps when no alternative was available should be relegated to reserve as soon as they can be replaced".
One kind of book popularly issued in the pocket format is the pocket dictionary as an edition of larger dictionaries. A pocket dictionary generally "contains no more than 75,000 entries",Mary Ellen Guffey, Carolyn Seefer, ''Business English'' (2010), p. 5. with abbreviated information about each entry, compared to the 170,000 entries or more of a typical desk dictionary, making the pocket dictionary inadequate for use by students beyond the high school level. One critic has described the pocket dictionary as "almost worthless, except as a flimsy guide to spelling and pronunciation". A countervailing view is that although a pocket dictionary can not replace the desk dictionary, "as a portable learning tool, the pocket dictionary is worth its weight in gold".
Another type of pocket size books that were popular among professionals before they have been replaced by smart phones is a specialized reference books. They ranged from very technical catalog of standards for structural engineers, to "Nephrology Pocket" - a digest of medical textbook on nephrology that contains all essential diagrams and tables.
See also
* Miniature bookReferences
Books by type Publishing {{publishing-stub