Books are tough, despite their papery constitutions.
They can be crammed on to shelves, smudged with snacks and doused in coffee. But they survive, year after year.
Until they don’t. Without proper care, even the stoutest Bible will begin to fall apart and eventually become unreadable.
Most personal libraries have at least a few sentimental books, or even some heirloom editions. Keeping them in good shape for future generations is easy, according to Tangerine Book Arts owner Nancy Missbach. She cautions:
“Books don’t swim, they don’t fly and they don’t eat peanut butter and jelly.”
That might sound like common sense, but this Denver book doctor has seen it all in 30 years of repairing beat-up bindings.
“It’s delightful to read in the bathtub,” she adds. “Just don’t do it with a first edition.”
Moisture devours books. What’s more, mold can begin growing on the pages of a water-damaged book within 48 hours.
But in Colorado’s semi-arid climate, there’s an even more pressing issue.
“A major problem for books is light,” says Sue Gallagher, who co-owns Gallagher Books at 1428 S. Broadway, with her husband, Don.
“When we moved into (our) shop we replaced all the glass with UV-filtered glass,” she says. “We also covered the light bulbs with UV-filter sleeves (because) direct sunlight is horrible and indirect light needs to be dealt with.”
Gallagher Books focuses on rare, collectible volumes. Plenty of old, tired-looking books turn up there. Consider a tattered first-edition “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” that Gallagher painstakingly worked to restore.
“The text block,” or the brick of sewn-together pages, “was separated from the spine and the covers, and the corners of the covers were all dog-eared, and the top of the spine and the bottom of the spine were all separated,” Gallagher recalls. “I put that sucker back together and sold it for a pretty good penny.”
Professional book preservation – or restoration, if necessary – is an option when at-home efforts to save a damaged book fall short.
Missbach says her services can cost anywhere from $150 to $1,000, depending on the book.
“I don’t do menu pricing,” she says. “When I look at a book I can tell pricing, based on time and materials.”
It might not be cheap, but serious book repair is not a do- it-yourself job.
“When I get older materials to conserve, the most time- consuming problem is removing previous repairs, especially old cellophane and other kinds of tape,” says Karen Jones, collections conservator for Jefferson County Public Libraries. “Never use tape on any book or paper you want to save for posterity.”
The decision whether to have a book professionally treated should take into account the book’s monetary and sentimental value.
“If a book is worth, say, four figures, it’s probably worth taking it to someone to have it resewn (and) the covers reattached,” Gallagher says.
But, as Missbach notes, “Sometimes the stories behind the books are far more interesting than the books themselves.”
Lois Harvey
Vocation: Co-owner of West Side Books, 3434 W. 32nd Ave.
Likes to read: In the cloistered nooks of the north Denver commercial building Harvey and her brother Jimmy converted from a garage into a second-hand bookstore. Customers like it there so much that when closing time rolls around, Harvey often jokes with stragglers about paying her cheap rent to stay in the store and read overnight. The truth is, she likes to hang around this industrial space with the exposed beams and painted yellow, red and purple brick walls just as much as neighbors do. At night, when employees and shoppers are gone, Harvey’s childlike urge to hide out with a book blossoms. Instead of doing that under a blanket with a flashlight, Harvey seeks out the stacks. “I like being surrounded by books,” says this cheerleader for Colorado authors. “Books are a security blanket for me.”
Celeste Jackson
Vocation: Denver Public Library spokeswoman
Likes to read: On her dining-room floor, or on the cozy sofas in her orange living room. Jackson spends most days looking out on city streets from the executive tower of the Demver Public Library’s postmodern downtown building conceived by Michael Graves. But at home, bright, warm color and abundant natural light make for a less stoic setting. This is where Jackson relishes the chance to unplug with a good book. Most recently, that escapist allure led to the guilty-pleasure, chic-lit indulgence, “Model Student: A Tale of Co-eds and Cover Girls,” by Robin Hazelwood (Crown, $23.95). Jackson, who says she’s drawn to bold interior colors, instinctively sits on her dining-room floor to read because the sage-colored, south-facing room captures nature’s best reading light: the sun. “It’s high, warm, bright light,” she says. Later, after muscles begin to ache from lying on her side, this reader retires with her dog, Mr. Blue, to her cushy, over-stuffed living- room couches.
Ruth Kear
Vocation: Kitchen and restaurant designer
Likes to read: In the bedroom at the back of her bungalow. Friends describe Kear as the best-read person they know; the book-group member who tends to read several new books for each one or two the other members digest. Kear reads in her bedroom because it’s the most temperate room in her house, and also one in which the décor changes with the seasons. During the winter, ethnic rugs cover hardwood floors and are coordinated with warm, rust and jewel-toned accents. In the summer, Kear makes the room more “girly-girly” by combining an heirloom quilt with white accents. The crème de la crème in this booklover’s favorite reading space is a combination of wall-mounted and table lamps, which together are ideal for reading. “Lighting is really important,” she says. “I’ve got light coming over my left shoulder and over my right shoulder.”
Book care tips
Preventing damaged books is a lot cheaper than repairing crumbling pages after decades of mistreatment. Here are some tips for keeping your library in top condition:
Store books upright on the shelf. Don’t let books slump. Exceptions are large books, like atlases or art volumes. They should be laid horizontally on shelves to keep the pages from pulling away from the spine. But don’t stack them too high.
Flip the lights off in your reading room or library when you leave. The less light books encounter, the better.
Don’t pack bookshelves too tight. Also, remove a book properly: Push its two neighbors to the side and pull it from the middle of the spine, not from the top.
“Books like living where people live,” says Sue Gallagher of Gallagher Books. That means 65 to 75 degrees and 50 percent humidity are ideal conditions; wet basements and clammy garages are not.
Use bookmarks. “Books aren’t flower presses or scrapbooks, and dog-ears are best left on dogs,” says Gallagher. Newsprint doesn’t work, either. It’s acidic, and will discolor the pages.
Don’t force the spine to be flexible. “The book will tell you how far to open it,” Gallagher says. If it’s creaking uncomfortably, don’t push.
Keep the dust jacket. “(Dust) continues to dry things out,” says Nancy Missbach of Tangerine Book Arts. “It damages the pages.” Some booklovers protect dust jackets with clear Mylar covers.
An acid-free clamshell box, available online or from a professional paper conservator, can help preserve particularly delicate texts.
If a book gets wet, throw it in the freezer. Then call a book conservator for more help.
– Kathleen St. John
