"Bound upside down - a collectable imperfection"

[cloudsinvenice]

Aren't we all, in a way?

(source)

Comments

[arcadiaego]

Huh, I have two books that are bound upside down - maybe I should check how much they're worth!

[cloudsinvenice]

I once saw one where just a section of it had been bound upside down - it was amazing that it got published that way, but I guess that means nobody flicks through them to check!

[illuminating_dragon]

I call it a bold attempt to get rid of a Reader's Digest Condensed Book.

I have a bookcase that belonged to my grandmother which may have been a Reader's Digest creation designed to house the condensed books. I'm not sure but that's what my grandmother had in it. It's a nice unit and I've never seen one like it.

[cloudsinvenice]

Yes, I was impressed with their cheek!

They're of slightly unusual dimensions, aren't they? Either way, it wouldn't surprise me if Reader's Digest had produced a bookcase designed for them at some point.

Here they can become a bit of a problem for charity shops, but my favourite local one once managed to sell a large number of them to someone who'd bought a bookcase and needed something to put in it. If they were hoping to look erudite, they really should've plunged into the discard box for some beautiful, cheap cloth-bound volumes, but hey: all the more for me...

[illuminating_dragon]

I've come to appreciate that Reader's Digest books had some fine illustrations but you'd need a lot of space to house them just for their illustrations. I'd be tempted because I've become very interested in illustrations of that period.

One has to wonder why someone with no books would buy a bookcase at all.

[mumsisdaughter]

When clearing out Mum's house, we discovered that no local charity would take them. They and 4 huge boxes of the monthly RD ended up in recycling.

When ordering Anno Dracula, I spotted
The Management Style of the Supreme Beings by Tom Holt. I thought I'd give someone else's idea on the afterlife a chance :P

[cloudsinvenice]

Sometimes it's the only thing to do! I'm sure charity shops have similar thoughts about The Da Vinci Code; an Oxfam bookshop in town was desperately trying to give them away to customers (it was an alarmingly large heap), but to no avail...

[teylaminh]

Somewhere in my box of childhood books I have a Ghostbusters cartoon hardback story-book (like the old Ladybird books) which is bound upside down...

I also have a rather anomalous Eddie Izzard video. It's ostensibly, according to the title, a video of his "Glorious" stand-up show, and my friend and I bought copies during Sixth Form around about the same time and watched them one evening. The next morning we were discussing the show and realised we had in fact watched completely different things.

Turns out my video was actually of "Unrepeatable" (his previous show) despite the packaging being undeniably that of "Glorious" (the video itself is even gold!). Even more weirdly, the running time on the back of the box is that of "Unrepeatable".

I still have it even now, despite also owning a limited edition set of videos of his 90's stand-up shows (up to "Dress to Kill") in a presentation briefcase (plus an equally limited edition t-shirt I've obviously never unfolded or worn!), and despite now also owning his entire stand-up collection on DVD.

Some things you just don't throw away.

[cloudsinvenice]

How bizarre! I wonder if the whole run of the videos was affected!