It's small. Portable. Affordable. Easy to slip into a coat pocket or toss into a suitcase. But the paperback book didn't just change how we read—it changed who could read.

Before the 20th century, books were often expensive, heavy, and inaccessible to the average person. Then came the paperback revolution. Publishers like Penguin Books in Britain and Pocket Books in the United States transformed literature into something democratic—sold at train stations, drugstores, and newsstands for just a few cents. Suddenly, classics, thrillers, romances, and political treatises were within reach of everyday readers.

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