That reminds me of the time back in 2001 when my parents -- without my knowledge -- took a box full of my books and shoved them in a dark corner of the basement and forget about them. I had assumed that they had just given the books away and never brought the subject up with them.

Then a couple years passed, and in late 2003, while I was digging around in the basement for God knows what reason, I found the box. Moisture had gotten to the books over those few short years, and I think about half of them were ruined beyond repair by thick, black mould. The rest were salvageable, though, and I still have a few of them sitting on my shelves to this day.