Lindsay's comment and my response on Saturday's post might be worth pursuing to see which attitude is the more commonly held: does the condition of a book matter to you? Lindsay thinks content is everything, while I feel the look of it matters too and I've been known to put a book back on the shelf and leave the shop if the only copy they have is a scruffy one. If there are multiple copies - say on the 'three for two' table - I will work my way down the pile to find the most perfect example, discarding anything with a crease, a crack, a tiny blemish, and it bothers me if they are all in similarly marked condition, having some running flaw. I can't be as hard to please where secondhand books are concerned, of course, but even then I'm pretty choosy.
I know Lindsay's probably breaking a spine (a book's one) in exasperation at my being so fussy, but there it is; as I say, it's the whole experience, aesthetic as well, that I want, and when I've finished the book it usually looks as unread - untouched, even - as it did when I got it. Obsessive? Yes, (and I'm the same about pens, I can't bear certain kinds and I get very twitchy if somebody uses one of mine and doesn't put it back in its proper place, and then there's notebooks......).
From my loveable little foibles (or evidence of a serious personality disorder), to yours: how about it - tatty copies or pristine ones?
