Bargain-Basement Literature: Why are English books made so badly?

“The unread American books in our collection, along with those from Germany and France and Italy and Mexico, still look brand-new. But even a 4-year-old English hardback has warped covers, a binding that snaps like a saltine when you open it, and pages so brittle and brown that the act of pulling it from the shelf leaves a little confetti pile of paper chips on the floor. It’s not just that these English books are junky (aesthetically); it’s that they’re often unreadable (logistically). They’re dying.” Christopher Caldwell —Bargain-Basement Literature: Why are English books made so badly?Slate)