Reviews

 I was thinking of those amazon reviews that say "the book came in bad condition." They seem to miss the point of a book review, oriented toward the content of the book, not the condition of any particular physical book. 

(There's a funny meme about people leaving reviews of on-line recipes, where the reviewer will alter the recipe in significant ways and then complain that it did not come out well.  "I had no eggs so I substituted honey. Horrible recipe; it was too sweet and didn't have the right texture."  That kind of thing. Once again, a kind of misapprehension of the function of reviewing.

Another form of recipe comment: the recipe is a "non-recipe recipe," labelled as such, with amounts deliberately omitted. Then someone will ask in the comment for exact quantities. There are hundreds of recipes with quantified ingredients. Look for one of those rather than commenting on one of few that doesn't.)  

I guess what got me here was thinking that the physical properties of the book do not determine its effects on the reader, except in a comparatively minor way. Sure, we like nice paper or a readable type-face, or an undamaged book arriving in the mail. But the meaning of the book is in the symbolic system of its language, which cannot be reduced to its molecular structure.  Symbolic structures seem to have an autonomy, even though every step in the process is the result of purely physical actions.