A couple of years back I started on twitter/x a thread collecting the twitter/x posts with damaged books and damaged manuscripts. It’s been a ride, but images are still popping up. Here are a few, with links to their initial tweets. Just goes to show what can happen.
Bit of a disaster run.
Mice working they way through a book, from KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections:
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Termite work (the original posts with more images are linked to the photos):
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Also, check out this BL blog post on bookworms proper:
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Then there is fire damage, of course:
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Water certainly didn’t help either:
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And, of course, there is bullet damage (!?):
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Plenty more photos gathered in the thread, if you’re into it; see here.
reception matters & manuscripts 
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