how many books get wet. just got two today and both had been wet at some time in their pasts. It doesn't hurt the readability but I wonder how so many books get wet. I have gotten many more than just these two. I see books at thrift stores all the time that have been wet. One of life's little mysteries I guess. I have never done it myself. I must not be living dangerously enough.

I think for some people a book - especially a paperback - is 'just a book'. It gets wet, so what.

My family used to know a couple who would share a book: he'd read about half the paperback, then rip it in half and give his wife the first half, the second half would go to her when he was finished. And books were read and rotated that way all the time. First time I saw it, at around age 8 or 9, I thought it was a dreadful thing to do.

Did you get those 2 from PBS? They shouldn't have been posted. I hope you RWAP'd them.

I find books at thrift stores all the time that have gotten wet at some point.  I rarely get books wet but once I accidentally spilled my water on one & the sad thing was I'd already posted it to someone on here. I just hadn't had time to package it yet so I had to cancel the request.  It was practically a new book too until I did that. 

I got a wishlisted book this week as a swap......the sender denies it was like that when sent even though there was no damage to the outer wrapping.

So she is not returning the credit and it is marked as unresolved in my transaction link.

Toni about your water damaged book - something to consider. When it rains really hard moisture in the air can permeate the contents of a mailer without harming the mailer itself. Twice this year I received Brand New Books FROM AMAZON (not an individual) that arrived with the last 30 or so pages lightly but obviously water damaged. There was no damage to the outer-wrapping. 

The pages that were water damaged in the book I received were in the middle of the book, running from bottom of page and 2/3 up the side and 1/3 into the text..

The package was heavily taped and protected so I suspect that the damage was already there before sending. It's pretty easy to distinguish between "recently" water damaged and " been like that for awhile, dried out with an an obvious discolored edge" on the damaged pages.

This transaction goes into the "oh well, just read and toss out" category.

Before joining PBS I was a serial-read-in-the-bathtub reader...can't tell you how many books fell into the tub when I was getting in or out, or slipped out of my hands, or got splashed. Same for poolside reading. I had to mend my ways upon joining PBS.

These days books seem to be printed on a much lower grade of paper and many can simulate the look of water damaged books from being exposed to humidity (puckery or wavy pages). Sometimes people mistake that for water damage and it is not. With true water damage you can usually see a faint line or stain in the paper which shows how far the water permeated.