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Post by erebus on May 19, 2012 17:58:14 GMT
Not sure where to post this. Sorry . But its something that has become more frequent to me recently. Book Cruelty. Next to Animal and Child cruelty this is probably the third worst cruelty there is. My first case point is people who let books bleach in the sun. I hate this. I mean how long has it been left there for it to bleach like that ? I bought a job lot of books of ebay recently. 20 hardbacks. All but four had some signs of sun bleaching. I mean what person put their books on a windowsill or in direct sunlight ? Ive got a copy of The Farm by Richard Haigh. The spine is meant to be fire engine red with white writing. Its just pure white due to the previous owners idle book keeping. You cannot even see the title. Its a terrible state. The other example is people who crack and open books so wide they break the spine. Would you break a persons spine ? No. So why a books. Sadly a lot of the most sought after rareities the members here collect are like golddust. And also have been abused by the ignorant. A lot of the Pan horror books are destroyed because of this. Ive been trying years to get a perfect set. And even after multiple buys of each volume struggle to find an immaculate number 11 ( why this volume ) Thankfully a lot of the trashy pulpy stuff we all love here was only a few hundred of so pages long so the books were that skinny they could survive the abuse, but you always get some sadist who holds a paperback in one hand...and folds the front cover over the back. Disgraceful. And those people who turn down a pages corner rather than use a bookmark. And worse still those who leave the book open on the page and place it face down still open. Makes me shudder. Abuse to hardbacks causes spinelean which is one thing I loathe. People on ebay tend to always photo the cover of the book. Which is useless. The amount of times Ive asked if the book has spine lean only to be told they dont understand is amazing. Plus showing only the front cover doesnt let us see for bleaching or the publishers stamp, because they always put first edition when clearly it is a BCA version. Other abuse is the dreaded Mother/Father who has let there kid get a hold of the books and they have drawn and scrawled in or on the books. Sometimes ripping out pages. I once was on a market stall and saw a good looking 10th pan of Horror , only to see poor bald guy on the cover coloured in red Sorry for this rant. Its just that everything I buy now has been tarnished. I know it comes with the territory I suppose. But where are the people like us who treat their books like kids of their own. I was in a charity shop today and saw a whole pile of First edition Hardbacks. Sadly they had been destroyed on the spines by the dreaded bleaching, other than that they looked great. There is hope. I saw a guy waiting for a bus the other week. He was reading an old copy of The Rats by Herbert. But he was holding it like some newborn brittle baby. It gave me hope. There are others like us. But this book cruelty thing has to stop. Maybe I should go to parliment with it
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Post by doug on May 19, 2012 19:06:28 GMT
Not sure where to post this. Sorry . But its something that has become more frequent to me recently. Book Cruelty. Next to Animal and Child cruelty this is probably the third worst cruelty there is. My first case point is people who let books bleach in the sun. I hate this. I mean how long has it been left there for it to bleach like that ? I bought a job lot of books of ebay recently. 20 hardbacks. All but four had some signs of sun bleaching. I mean what person put their books on a windowsill or in direct sunlight ? Ive got a copy of The Farm by Richard Haigh. The spine is meant to be fire engine red with white writing. Its just pure white due to the previous owners idle book keeping. You cannot even see the title. Its a terrible state. The other example is people who crack and open books so wide they break the spine. Would you break a persons spine ? No. So why a books. Sadly a lot of the most sought after rareities the members here collect are like golddust. And also have been abused by the ignorant. A lot of the Pan horror books are destroyed because of this. Ive been trying years to get a perfect set. And even after multiple buys of each volume struggle to find an immaculate number 11 ( why this volume ) Thankfully a lot of the trashy pulpy stuff we all love here was only a few hundred of so pages long so the books were that skinny they could survive the abuse, but you always get some sadist who holds a paperback in one hand...and folds the front cover over the back. Disgraceful. And those people who turn down a pages corner rather than use a bookmark. And worse still those who leave the book open on the page and place it face down still open. Makes me shudder. Abuse to hardbacks causes spinelean which is one thing I loathe. People on ebay tend to always photo the cover of the book. Which is useless. The amount of times Ive asked if the book has spine lean only to be told they dont understand is amazing. Plus showing only the front cover doesnt let us see for bleaching or the publishers stamp, because they always put first edition when clearly it is a BCA version. Other abuse is the dreaded Mother/Father who has let there kid get a hold of the books and they have drawn and scrawled in or on the books. Sometimes ripping out pages. I once was on a market stall and saw a good looking 10th pan of Horror , only to see poor bald guy on the cover coloured in red Sorry for this rant. Its just that everything I buy now has been tarnished. I know it comes with the territory I suppose. But where are the people like us who treat their books like kids of their own. I was in a charity shop today and saw a whole pile of First edition Hardbacks. Sadly they had been destroyed on the spines by the dreaded bleaching, other than that they looked great. There is hope. I saw a guy waiting for a bus the other week. He was reading an old copy of The Rats by Herbert. But he was holding it like some newborn brittle baby. It gave me hope. There are others like us. But this book cruelty thing has to stop. Maybe I should go to parliment with it You are 100% correct sir! What I hate the most is the notorious "Index finger first joint/knuckle crease front and back cover. do you know what I mean. When someone holds open a paperback the first knuckel joint of both index fingers creases the front and back covers with a small but screamingly obvious crescent/half circle crease. you useualy find it about halfway down and about 1 inch from the cover edge. It's because of thse things that I haven't lent out any books in over 25 years. God how I hate these things on a book. take care. Doug
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on May 19, 2012 19:38:17 GMT
I mean what person put their books on a windowsill Someone who has no other space left. I will comment no further.
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Post by noose on May 19, 2012 21:13:11 GMT
Heavy blackout curtains for my office - don't want the books, nor these to get sun damaged...
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Post by andydecker on May 20, 2012 12:33:54 GMT
how long has it been left there for it to bleach like that ? Three days top, in the worst case. When I see second hand books I often marvel how people manage to transform an even spine into something which looks like a car drove over it. Shudder!
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Post by noose on May 20, 2012 13:06:28 GMT
We should have a 'worst spines ever' thread...
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Post by erebus on May 20, 2012 13:36:53 GMT
Johnny Your office is great. Love those pictures. I keep all of my books bagged. Hard and paperback. It preserves them from all elements. The worst spine on a book I saw was on a Pan Horror 15. . I was so bad the spine was a letter C shape if you get me. With the tips almost touching. Ive also seen books with spines so bad the are on the left hand side of the front cover due to being crushed so much. Horrible.
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Post by DemonSpawn on May 20, 2012 18:21:08 GMT
I have some truly horrendous spines in my collection.
Don't mind "reading copies" of books. I'll get better copies sooner or later. But some do make me wince a tad, if I am truly honest.
The only thing I really can not abide is loose pages. I will not tolerate loose pages.
Believe it or not, I have had books from Amazon or from a certain swap site I use from time to time, which had loose pages, and which had been describes as in in good condition!
Seriously, what sort of person claims that a book with loose pages is in good condition?!
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junkmonkey
Crab On The Rampage
Shhhhh! I'm Hiding....
Posts: 98
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Post by junkmonkey on May 20, 2012 19:51:23 GMT
I have from time to time rebuilt paperbacks with loose pages. If the whole book is coming to pieces you can ease off the cover, clamp the pages, plane off the old glue, and reglue the thing with PVA. I've also been known to make new spines in Illustrator and sometimes whole covers. Even for books that don't even exist: Fake Penguin by the_junk_monkey, on Flickr I get bored easily.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on May 20, 2012 19:58:42 GMT
Oh no! We are in the alternate reality of THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE!
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Post by jamesdoig on May 20, 2012 21:22:58 GMT
I have from time to time rebuilt paperbacks with loose pages. If the whole book is coming to pieces you can ease off the cover, clamp the pages, plane off the old glue, and reglue the thing with PVA. I've saved many a book that way too - PVA is your friend. Plus you can pick up scarce books with loose pages for bugger all and fix them up. Here's a couple of examples of kiddy ruined books: Someone got at this cover with green ink.
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Post by killercrab on May 21, 2012 15:12:28 GMT
Can't say I've ever boarded and backed any books though being a comic collector of old I can understand the compulsion a bit. Most of my books are in piles , teetering wildly at times but they aren't sunburnt at least. If a book's really in crappy condition I don't buy it never mind looking for a tube of PVA. My only caveat with the books I buy is I read them.I've left plenty of pulp for others on shelves if it's not my cuppa tea. KC
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Post by andydecker on May 21, 2012 16:32:15 GMT
I wish I would have bagged my comics. Never saw the merit, though, and today most are in a read-only condition, with some damage to the corners because of standing upright for years. Not that they were much worth to begin with, as I was a reader first and never a collector, still it is nearly impossible to find a buyer for mainstream stuff in less then mint condition.
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Post by Knygathin on May 22, 2012 17:55:11 GMT
I once had a "friend" over, who was non-intellectual, and seemed to have an inferiority complex, because he got annoyed by all my books. He grabbed a paperback from the shelf, saying "And what's THIS?", reading the title out loud in a condescending manner. Then he opened the book with his carpenter's fists, and cracked the spine in one go.
As you may well imagine, I never invited him again.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on May 22, 2012 18:28:42 GMT
I once had a "friend" over, who was non-intellectual, and seemed to have an inferiority complex, because he got annoyed by all my books. He grabbed a paperback from the shelf, saying "And what's THIS?", reading the title out loud in a condescending manner. Then he opened the book with his carpenter's fists, and cracked the spine in one go. As you may well imagine, I never invited him again. This reminds me of a scene in the otherwise forgettable 1993 film Hexed when a non-intellectual character looks at another character's bookshelf and scornfully mutters, to no one in particular, "Books!"
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