They are all relatively durable hardbacks except for the Flexibound Editions (and even these are way more durable than your average paperback). Most of the books have decorative head and tail bands, gilt or stained page edges, bound-in silk ribbon bookmarks, and decorative hubs on the spine. They are definitely very decorative shelf candy with their gorgeous cover designs and bright colored covers, and I personally think that anything that makes people more likely to pick up and read a classic novel is a great thing. Do they compare in quality to publishers selling fine press leatherbound editions? Of course not. The Flexibound Editions, on the other hand, are pretty much completely faux leather. So yes, most B&N book covers are comprised of about 20% real leather. Basically bonded leather is to leather what chipboard is to wood. In some cases, a second coating of polyurethane can be added and embossed to create a texture closer to real leather. This is basically a mix of both real leather (leftover scraps and fibres from processing genuine leather) and fake leather (typically a polyurethane binder), rolled together using an adhesive glue and bonded onto a paper backing. The majority of the books in the collectible classics series are covered in ‘bonded’ leather. Visit this page on the Barnes & Noble website to see everything they currently have available in the series. In 2005, they released a highly decorative edition of The Complete Works of Lewis Carrolland its popularity sparked the beginning of the ‘Collectible Classics’ as the series is better known today.

The contents were mostly omnibus editions (with several titles by the same author in a single book) and the bindings were very traditional, with dark (bonded) leather covers featuring plain gold text and simple foiled borders, along with raised bands on the spine, gilt page edges, decorative endpapers, and a sewn-in ribbon bookmark. Barnes and Noble brought out their original series of collectible ‘exclusive’ leather-bound classic editions in 1992.

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