Worst damage to a book

Hiya - I like my books and always try to keep them in as pristine a condition as possible. Doesn't always happen and sometimes a favourite copy will get a little dogeared or the pages a little worn from overuse. But I do make the effort to maintain them.

Some people don't, or sometimes bad things just happen to a book to leave it in an unreadable state.

The worst I've seen were a couple of Terry Pratchett paperbacks that had been found by a puppy. The puppy had taking a great liking to the books and has great taste. Great taste enough to spend a few hours chewing on them so that the open side of all the pages was chewed and mangled before recovery and recognition. A real sad end to the books.

Anyone got any other great stories?

 

For me - it's some water damage where the books had then dried out afterwards while sticking together. Trying to pry the pages apart without tearing them was pretty impossible. The ink had run through from page to page and it was easier to just replace the book than try and recover it.

 

Does burning count? It was unrecoverable and reduced to ash long before I was done, and then the ashes went into the compost heap so it might do some good. Yes, you read correctly, I burned a book.

I had picked it up as part of a market stall consignment, thirty years ago now, for 10p. The cover, jacket, text and blurb all presented the book as a mafia thriller. For the first forty pages it was and then it turned into the type of thing that Amazon now bans and the police investigate. I had an incinerator outside full of garden waste and, soon after that, I added one book. Then I added matches until I felt less disturbed.

The joys of the 1970's pulp market when it seems anything went, and in the 1990's it went up in flames.

 

It would have to be the pages falling out where the books weren't glued well or reeking of cigarette smoke which is an odour that never seems to go away.

 

Here have seen books been careless on the floor and also in the water. I do keep my books on my cabinet to avoid water and to keep it away from my young siblings..

 

I've had some books like that and it's almost heartbreaking when the book is in five separate pieces barely held together in the cover with several sheets hanging on by willpower alone.

Or the one book that had a sheaf of them that have to be carefully wrangled and kept in line otherwise they stuck out or ended up in the wrong order the one time the book fell on the floor.

 

It breaks my heart when I see damage done to a book. Personally, the worst that has been done to a couple of my own books is just regular wear and tear. However I have seen books that belong to others that have been dropped in water or written in/on by kids.

 

In my opinion, water and other liquid damage is the worst thing that can happen to a book. I've worked in libraries and once someone returned an illustrated Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone still wet and covered in mold. It broke my heart, and they had no idea it was a problem.

 

I am always sad if any of my books get damaged. I've had all the above: water damage, doggie damage, child damage etc. My granddaughter is the world's worst when it comes to books. She seems to think that all books are for coloring. Hence, some of my books have colored pages. I had to start putting them high so she can't get them.

 

I would like to say I cannot believe that, but I have seen some of the seventies pulp and it has left severe scars on my psyche.

The worst I have run into is water damage and damp. Recovering the books is possible but it takes a lot of effort and prayer that mould has not set in. Once a book has mould or mildew I'm not sure there is anything you can really do to save it.

 

One of mine was thrown up on by a cat. Does that count as water damage? It was grey and smelled horrible. There was no way to save it.

 

Atry, did you try Freebreze and Lysol spray? When my makes that retching sound I try to move everything out of the way of "its" path. Luckily, it's a rare occurrence.

Usually, the worst I've seen done was by misbehaving children and foolish parents that don't care little Jimmy is ripping out pages and marking all over the books.

 

Found a set of books in a garage. Not sure what was the worst: the spiders, the dust or the mildew.

Write-offs the lot of them.

 

There was a house fire at my daughter's house and although a lot of the books survived the flames, they did not survive the smoke. We tried airing them out, but they still reek like smoke. I don't know if we will be able to salvage them.