These are books. They’re in such sorry state because their owner is either too lazy or too broke to buy a decent bookshelf. The apartment that their owner moved in to a month ago was not pre-furnished and “on the floor and against the wall” was apparently the best he could do. Their previous home was a dry and fairly comfortable closet. Now they are poorly arranged along a narrow corridor leading to the bathroom. Their owner, who is given to refer to himself in the third person but is inclined to read fiction written in the first-person narrative mode, has promised to move them to higher ground. He thinks the cupboard above the kitchen sink is a good place to start.