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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: IN the first chapter I mentioned bookbinders among the Enemies
of Books, and I tremble to think what a stinging retort might be made
if some irate bibliopegist were to turn the scales on the printer,
and place HIM in the same category. On the sins of printers,
and the unnatural neglect which has often shortened the lives
of their typographical progeny, it is not for me to dilate.
There is an old proverb, " 'Tis an ill bird that befouls its
own nest"; a curious chapter thereupon, with many modern examples,
might nevertheless be written. This I will leave, and will now
only place on record some of the cruelties perpetrated upon books
by the ignorance or carelessness of binders.
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