One of the books I was boxing up for The Big Move was absolutely falling to bits, beyond all help of rescue (to the extent that probably about a quarter of the pages, including front and back cover, were missing), and I was rather disappointed by this as it was one of those books that I've had since childhood and has a special place in my heart (even though I obviously mistreated it, as opposed to just plan "read it a lot", for it to get in that state).