Stu wrote:

It really is on a par with toilet paper, only it is self-browning.

There's a one-liner I never thought I'd hear.

BTW "going brown" is it a common dynamic of the paper used for the 1961 Puffin Hobbit (Hamm A3e) as well?

Ugo Truffelli wrote:

BTW "going brown" is it a common dynamic of the paper used for the 1961 Puffin Hobbit (Hamm A3e) as well?

Most older paperbacks will go brown to some degree. The paper is very cheap and acidic.

I grabbed for few pounds a decent copy of the Puffin Hobbit and it's slightly more brown of what I expected

Ugo Truffelli wrote:

I grabbed for few pounds a decent copy of the Puffin Hobbit and it's slightly more brown of what I expected

I don't think that is abnormal. Often when you see paperbacks of that age with less browning to the page edges, it is because the naughty bookseller has been at them with a fine sanding block. Some second-hand bookshops do this as a matter of course. The browning happens with exposure to oxygen and light, so paperbacks in slipcases fare much better.