Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 08:39:52 -0800 (PST)
From: Cathy Green <dalek_cag at yahoo.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: The binding will not hold, pages fall apart
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

I've had that problem with trade paperbacks.  My mom's
20-40 yearold old trade paperbacks, which were
stitched (and apparently useda much better glue), have
held up nicely.  My tradepaperbacks, and some
hardcovers, which were glued, sometimes have had the
bonding fall apart the first time I cracked open the
book to read it.  I was particularly peeved when this
happened with a rather expensive copy of De Rerum
Natura which I had to buy in college.  Fortunately, in
that case the bookstore allowed me to trade it in for
another copy.

--cathy

--- Erica VD Ginter <eginter at klgai.com> wrote:
> Several years ago Lydia received a US-made book as a
> gift. The cover
> sepatated from the body of the book the second time
> we read it. I wrote a
> letter to the publisher and they sent a replacement,
> which fell apart the
> first time we read it. I have no comparative data
> with UK books.
>
> Erica
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Walsh [mailto:MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 10:17 AM
> To: wsfalist at keithlynch.net
> Subject: [WSFA] The binding will not hold, pages
> fall apart
>
> Interesting piece here:
> http://slate.msn.com/id/2079769/ about UK books =
> and why they seem to be so poorly produced.  I have
> fairly UK hardcovers =
> that have rarely seen light and the edges are
> turning brown.
>
> "The books from England - and only the books from
> England - are falling to pieces. The unread American
> books in our
> collection, along with those from Germany and France
> and Italy and
> Mexico, still look brand-new. But even a 4-year-old
> English hardback has
> warped covers, a binding that snaps like a saltine
> when you open it, and
> pages so brittle and brown that the act of pulling
> it from the shelf =
> leaves a
> little confetti pile of paper chips on the floor.
> It's not just that these =
> English
> books are junky (aesthetically); it's that they're
> often unreadable
> (logistically). They're dying."
>
> In my more cynical moments I suspect that with all
> ofthe acid-free paper =
> that is used in the US that we're shipping all the
> acid to the UK.
>

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