Booking Through Thursday: Perfection

The questions today are from Deb, the new question-creater of the meme. Thanks, Deb!

1. What is the most pristine, perfect book in your collection? The one that looks like it's never been opened (and in fact may never have been)? Whose binding is uncracked, the corners still perfect?
   This is a question I rather trembled at the thought of contemplating, as I have many a yet-to-be read book purchase littering my apartment but the most recent pristine, perfect book in my collection is that big, gorgeous volume below: Ralph Steadman’s Untrodden Grapes.
   
   



2. Why is that book so perfect? Was it a gift? Is it a coffee table book too beautiful to use? Something you simply have no interest in and haven't bothered to open?
   This book was an impulse buy last Christmas. I’ve always loved Steadman’s whimsical illustrations, many of which often crop up in the most unexpected places, like on this striking wine label (I have a tendency to choose wines by the aesthetic appeal of their labels).
   
   
   When I saw this book, which Steadman wrote and filled with beautiful illustration about his tour of the world’s various wine-producing regions, I had to get it. Of course, once I got the book home, I somehow never found the time to sit down and enjoy it. So, the poor volume has been collecting dust on my bookshelf. It’s not that I’m not interested…I mean, how could one resist lingering over these…
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   but I just haven’t gotten around to the reading and lingering yet. Unfortunately, this neglect seems to happen quite often to many of the books that I buy. So much so that there seems to be a required incubation period for a purchase on my bookshelf before I will actually read it. Hmm…is this a sign that I have too many unread books? Does this happen to anyone else?