This is a useful one to reply to because it contains stuff in a bunch of other comments but I’ll add some of those replies.
1, I don’t love how hardcover feels. I can’t hold them one handed, so I only buy them if it’s something I’m itching for the release, and I buy a mass market later. I dont' really like trade size either. This is probably a nostalgia thing, but mass market feels like a friend, everything else feels like a coworker.
2, several of these are second copies. As in, I utterly destroyed the first one, and wanted a new one. I cant even find the first Kushiel, which was my 3rd, and I guess I need a 4th copy now. I sometimes buy a used one to replace mine — that hobbit was used, but in much better condition when I got it, and the new ones in the book store had the wrong cover. If the book is fairly new/small author, I try to buy brand new so they can get paid again.
3, Onyx? this friend would also be judgy about art prints getting sun bleached. Just how she is.
4, I lost the back cover of RotK a couple days ago because there was a sudden spider and I flailed. It's on the table. I’ll tape it back later. The others without covers? I’d have taped them back if I hadn’t lost them entirely. When I tore the back off Towers the first time I read it (about 2 days after seeing FotR in theater), I carefully reassembled. It survived another five years before it crumpled into dust.
5, If I was trying to preserve them for generations, I'd do it properly. The duct tape situations are not that. I have Art Books(tm) that I am careful with bc those guys are expensive. And then I have the collection of dover reference books. They're for using, and have broken spines and loose pages and they are closer in my head to a cookbook than an art book
6, I worked in a library! I sometimes buy the aged out ones if they do a sale so I can support them, and I'd have thrown myself over the desk to take someone down if they did this to one of ours. These are mine.
7, none of the damage is 'intentional' as in, I didn't do it to be aesthetic. But the corner of one got chewed on by an infant; another by a puppy. A toddler tried to shove one into a bag and was very bad at it. Most of it's me though. None of them have every been dropped into the bathtub like my phone (and tablet) have, but steam is not kind to books.
