Otherwise I'd have no problem with it in most cases, in fact I'd be happy to see people read good books (well, I won't claim every single book I own could be called good...), unless perhaps if it was some particularly expensive or otherwise valuable book (like Eco's Storia della Bellezza that I just bought, though needless to say compared to some of the books you buy that hardly ranks as expensive). But in general, most of my books are paperbacks, and can be replaced easily enough if they should reach such a bad state, for whatever reason. It's the content that counts, and the price. I just bought a whole bunch of English literature classics that remained on my To-Read list at 2-3 euros a piece, was quite pleased with that - sure, they're paperbacks and not made to be read twenty times and still look pristine, but you can read them a couple of times without them falling apart, which really is the primary criterium, no?