Posted by Alan Hakim on January 11, 2005 at 10:42:56 from 213.166.17.22 user awhakim.
In Reply to: Re: Another book standard? posted by Jon on January 10, 2005 at 15:46:37:
I read Dan's item in the Library, so I have had a quick scan of the shelves. There does appear to be a British uniform standard that you tilt your head to the right to read spines. The books in other languages mostly, but not universally (even within one language), require you to tilt to the left. The Chinese, naturally, print vertically.
I am quite surprised by this, which I had never noticed. The uniformity may have come about in the 1950s. At that time, I was buying quite a lot of the Penguin Classics as they came out. At some point the lettering on the spine was reversed, so in order to read all the titles on the shelf at once, I had to store half the books upside down.
At the time, I assumed it was just publisher's perversity, but maybe there had been some kind of agreement reached.