“Do not toast them over the fire...”🤣 I’ve actually done that to dry out a book I dropped in the snow. What a great article--I love my books! They are my friends, and I try to keep them in tip top shape. But since I have so many, I am constantly lending them out. Which brings me to my question... can you write a post giving us ideas on how to reclaim our books from our friends?! 😁
Thanks for the advice on how to take care and clean the books. Especially mold and bugs. I have a few old hardcovers that have those little bugs, and I had no idea how to get rid of them. Freeze them! That’ll teach ‘em.
And two current trends in book production that I really dislike: the matte cover. As you read it, it become sticky. As you try to wipe it down (to clean off fingerprints or food smudges) it becomes stickier. And then, the film begins to peel off on the edges. I now almost always put protective tape on these kind of covers before reading. And second, print on demand books. I recently ordered a collection of G. K. Chesterton’s poems. It was a recent edition, but browsing for books on Amazon, I found an affordable hardcover printed in 1958, shipped from the UK. The newer edition turned out to be print on demand. It’s still Chesterton, but even the formatting seems cheap. The 1958 edition is exactly what one would expect from a nice, time worn, but still in great condition book.
I actually read most of my substacks on a pad after my “newspaper” but I also use it for pdfs from Google Books or an occasional ebook when I urgently need to read something or it’s sufficiently cheaper to be a good alternative for a book that doesn’t need a place on my shelves.
“Do not toast them over the fire...”🤣 I’ve actually done that to dry out a book I dropped in the snow. What a great article--I love my books! They are my friends, and I try to keep them in tip top shape. But since I have so many, I am constantly lending them out. Which brings me to my question... can you write a post giving us ideas on how to reclaim our books from our friends?! 😁
This post just makes me want to go to an old bookstore just to smell the books when I walk in.
And all this time I thought the Codex Sassoon was a hair-care product. Thanks for the enlightening update.
Thanks for the advice on how to take care and clean the books. Especially mold and bugs. I have a few old hardcovers that have those little bugs, and I had no idea how to get rid of them. Freeze them! That’ll teach ‘em.
And two current trends in book production that I really dislike: the matte cover. As you read it, it become sticky. As you try to wipe it down (to clean off fingerprints or food smudges) it becomes stickier. And then, the film begins to peel off on the edges. I now almost always put protective tape on these kind of covers before reading. And second, print on demand books. I recently ordered a collection of G. K. Chesterton’s poems. It was a recent edition, but browsing for books on Amazon, I found an affordable hardcover printed in 1958, shipped from the UK. The newer edition turned out to be print on demand. It’s still Chesterton, but even the formatting seems cheap. The 1958 edition is exactly what one would expect from a nice, time worn, but still in great condition book.
We often fan out books and leave them over an air vent. Works pretty well!
I love this so much. What a great piece!
a perfectly apt ode to the love of the printed page
Yep. I was just thinking about this. 👍🏼
I actually read most of my substacks on a pad after my “newspaper” but I also use it for pdfs from Google Books or an occasional ebook when I urgently need to read something or it’s sufficiently cheaper to be a good alternative for a book that doesn’t need a place on my shelves.