I mentioned in a previous post how the copy of Porphyry’s Letter to Marcella that I obtained proved to be mouldy. Naturally I returned it, and today got the following rather offensive email from the bookseller, Any Amount of Books.
“We will certainly refund your money. But as nobody can detect any smell from this book we ask that you do not order any other books from us on the internet, it does cost us money to send books and in future perhaps it would be better for you to buy books directly so that you can smell them before you buy.”
Postscript: I have today (2nd May) obtained a replacement copy from a US bookseller. The copy above had quite a lot of foxing down one side on every page, despite being advertised as ‘Slight foxing otherwise VG’. But this one is not only clean, but has much less foxing. To cap it all, it is half the price (although postage takes most of that away).
Readers may remember that I was in the market for this book because a library lent me the only copy in this country by ILL, but somehow it never reached me and indeed got lost. It seemed worthwhile for me to replace an item that they still would have, were it not for their kindness in lending. I would have been ashamed to present the Any Amount of Books copy. Thankfully this one will do just fine.
You don’t microwave your books to kill the mold?
Interesting: I’ve never heard of such a thing, actually.