Miles_Perhour wrote:

I got mine today and love the books but was a bit disappointed with the damage on the books, would it be petty to complaine about this?

Not petty, I would return/exchange.

Miles_Perhour wrote:

I got mine today and love the books but was a bit disappointed with the damage on the books, would it be petty to complaine about this?

I would return them to be exchanged.

Miles_Perhour wrote:

I got mine today and love the books but was a bit disappointed with the damage on the books, would it be petty to complaine about this?

Any one of those faults would warrant a return. These are relatively expensive books and those should not have left the printers.

Question for all of you that have the books in hand - are the spines paper? The description for the book says quarter bound in leather if I'm not mistaken, but it appears to be paper spines with cloth boards from what I can tell from the pictures here.

ǽc ælf wrote:

Question for all of you that have the books in hand - are the spines paper? The description for the book says quarter bound in leather if I'm not mistaken, but it appears to be paper spines with cloth boards from what I can tell from the pictures here.

I don't have them, but they are definitely leather. Like other mass-market leather books it will either just be a "split" from the hide (basically a layer cut from it) coated with a plastic/paint or it will be bonded leather (leather scraps in a plastic matrix). I'm not sure if it is clear which of those it is (or what animal it is), though it makes little difference in practical terms. It isn't the leather you would get in a fine quality rebind, but you aren't paying the price of a fine quality rebind. Anybody's guess how it will hold up long term, but the HC quarter leather editions from 1997-2002 seem to be holding up OK and those would be similarly cheap leather.

The late Stu wrote:

ǽc ælf wrote:

Question for all of you that have the books in hand - are the spines paper? The description for the book says quarter bound in leather if I'm not mistaken, but it appears to be paper spines with cloth boards from what I can tell from the pictures here.

I don't have them, but they are definitely leather. Like other mass-market leather books it will either just be a "split" from the hide (basically a layer cut from it) coated with a plastic/paint or it will be bonded leather (leather scraps in a plastic matrix). I'm not sure if it is clear which of those it is (or what animal it is), though it makes little difference in practical terms. It isn't the leather you would get in a fine quality rebind, but you aren't paying the price of a fine quality rebind. Anybody's guess how it will hold up long term, but the HC quarter leather editions from 1997-2002 seem to be holding up OK and those would be similarly cheap leather.

The late Stu is right, definitely not paper. Not sure how you could get that from images shared here?

In regards to what kind, it appears (to my eye) to be composite similar to what Easton Press does but not as good of quality. Very similar to 90s and 00s HC quarter bound leather books.

Thank you for both for the confirmation, that is a relief!

Mr. Underhill, the pictures Miles_Perhour posted in particular are what made me question the spines. It looked similar to some of the textured papers I've seen on other Harper Collins publications. Hard to tell from an image, so thanks again for clarifying.

Would anyone happen to know the 1st print size for this 70th Anniversary edition?

HC have said it is 10,000 copies and I think that is the US & UK editions combined.

Thanks Trotter. Is it a 50/50 split between US and UK or is it likely a higher percentage of those are William Morrow editions?