I tend to side with the "local" belief that "when the book is lying face-up, its spine is of little value, because you can read all you want on the cover."
I side with the belief that book bindings and cover directions should be in line with the language that book is written in.
In East Asia, tradition dictates that books are opened from left to right, using your right hand, with the spine on the right. As to the direction of the book title on the spine, there's no disagreement, because how it is written on the spine is how it is written on the pages - top to bottom and right to left.
Too bad Chinese books these days are starting to read like a western book. I wonder if it had anything to do with GOST 7.84–2002. It's either that or M$ Word has screwed everyone else's writing and printing tradition.
From http://www.sarm.am/en/standarts/view/2550
regarding countries where GOST 7.84-2002 is accepted :
Ukraina
Turkmenistan
Russian Federation
Uzbekistan
Tadjikistan
Moldova
Kazakhstan
Georgia
Belorussia
Armenia
Kirgizstan
Azebaijan
In East Asia, tradition dictates that books are opened from left to right, using your right hand, with the spine on the right. As to the direction of the book title on the spine, there's no disagreement, because how it is written on the spine is how it is written on the pages - top to bottom and right to left.
Too bad Chinese books these days are starting to read like a western book. I wonder if it had anything to do with GOST 7.84–2002. It's either that or M$ Word has screwed everyone else's writing and printing tradition.