Damaged Goods

Technique of Motor Racing by Piero Taruffi.  Hardcover book published 1959.

I’m going to begin this blog entry with 3 questions.  Why? Why? and Why?

Vintage motor racing is an interesting and popular subject… well maybe not so interesting to me personally, but there are others who do find it interesting and from my experience books on this subject seem to sell well.  If I find a book with the words “Motor Racing”, “Grand Prix” or “Fast Cars going around in circles” etc. in the title, I tend to look a little closer.  An instructional motor racing book from 1959 is a great find and I believe a very sellable find… which I guess is why I now have this book in my possession.

So what’s the problem? 

When I bought the book it was pretty obvious that the dust jacket was very worn (ripped, scuffed, creased etc) but the cover was still solid… which is a good thing.

So what’s the problem? 

OK the front endpaper has been removed.  This is not good, but still I figured this book was sellable as firstly the subject matter (see above) and secondly, it’s not a title I’ve seen before. 

SO WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?  I’ll tell you what the problem is… some idiot has burnt the right hand edges of some of the pages… and I didn’t notice this when I bought the book.  Why didn’t I notice this?  Answer: Why would I look for damage that I would never even dream of seeing in a book.  Nazi’s burnt books and more recently religious fanatics on all sides have burnt the oppositions books… but I gotta tell ya, I can’t see why a Nazi or some crazy church minister in the US would have something against vintage motor racing.  As I mentioned earlier, its not my thing either, but I certainly wouldn’t burn it.

Why? Why? and Why?  I’m without an answer. 

So what does Huc & Gabet do with a book in this condition?  Well this book gets filed away in the special file of damaged beyond sellabilty books… also known as the bin… and never the fire.