Book condition can tell you a lot about a person. When you think about it, really, it comes down to respect. Much the same way taking pride in your personal appearance, having good hygiene, and being healthy signifies self-respect, taking good care of your books signifies respect for those books and the careful work that went into creating the finished product.
By no means am I saying that appearance is everything. That's not true of anything, but it does make a statement. What you take care of in your life shows other people what is important to you. Your personal appearance, your dog's appearance, your muscle car.... For literary nerds, it's books.
I have worked in retail and used book stores and have plenty of book condition horror stories. There's the stuff we've all seen before. Multiple dog-earred pages, torn dust jackets, funky smells, highlighting and writing inside the book, etc. Then there are more serious offenses, like missing pages, covers that are taped back together, and spill stains that discolor and warp the books. But a book that I recently received in a swap topped all of that.
Granted, I'm probably an elitist when it comes to book condition. My "Good" could be your "Very good", and that's understandable. We're different people. We qualify things differently. And when you swap books there is always a risk that the item won't live up to your expectations. When I received this particular book I was dumfounded not only by it's condition but by the way it arrived.
A rather unassuming package arrived in the mailbox, wrapped in brown paper with a printed address label on it. Once I touched it I knew that it wasn't just books wrapped up. It was too sturdy. They had to be in some kind of box. I tore into the paper and this is what I found....
