The Demise of the Print Book
Nov. 4th, 2013 01:17 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
littlerdog.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
thelittledogNo, this isn't a polemic on the virtues of ebooks :). Honestly! I could point out some of their disadvantages, but I won't do that, either.
What I want to talk about is book repair. What do you do when your print book loses pages, or its cover, or simply falls apart?
Usually what I do is ask Monissaw, as she's done a course on repairing books. Which is more than I have. I have some of the essentials of the book-repairer's toolkit, ie Magic Tape and PVA glue. Admittedly, I've only had the glue since yesterday. I got it in Ryman's while buying a laundry marker. By the way, if anyone's seen my shiny new not-even-taken-out-of-its-packet-yet laundry marker, please let me know where it's got to. I suspect feline involvement.
Ahem.
As I commented in an earlier post, my copy of Connoisseur's Science Fiction (by Men) fell into two pieces in the course of a reread. The spine tore away from the block, leaving the book halved. As I also noted, I have a second copy. Before determining whether the first copy should be mended or recycled, I found the second copy. Ironically, that also stood in need of repair, although its need wasn't as great as the first copy. Part of the block had simply pulled away from the spine, but the book was still in one piece.
In the event, I decided to repair both, if only for the practice. After all, that way there was a good chance I'd end up with one readable copy. Right?
What I don't have, unfortunately, is any way of compressing the block against the spine while the glue dries. Hence it's likely further repairs will be required, should the books ever be read again. And reading them again is, after all, the point.
The glue I bought didn't come with a brush or indeed any kind of applicator, so I filched a bamboo skewer from my husband's massive collection and used that to apply glue along the edge of the block of the second copy. Then mashed the block back up against the spine. The book won't be as good as new, but maybe it'll be readable once it dries. Maybe?
The first book will be more difficult. I've tried to stick down some of the loose bits of spine, but they only pop up again as I have nothing to make them stay in place. Maybe tape would be the better option.
I wouldn't even be bothering if these books were still in print. Or would I? Hard to say.
What I want to talk about is book repair. What do you do when your print book loses pages, or its cover, or simply falls apart?
Usually what I do is ask Monissaw, as she's done a course on repairing books. Which is more than I have. I have some of the essentials of the book-repairer's toolkit, ie Magic Tape and PVA glue. Admittedly, I've only had the glue since yesterday. I got it in Ryman's while buying a laundry marker. By the way, if anyone's seen my shiny new not-even-taken-out-of-its-packet-yet laundry marker, please let me know where it's got to. I suspect feline involvement.
Ahem.
As I commented in an earlier post, my copy of Connoisseur's Science Fiction (by Men) fell into two pieces in the course of a reread. The spine tore away from the block, leaving the book halved. As I also noted, I have a second copy. Before determining whether the first copy should be mended or recycled, I found the second copy. Ironically, that also stood in need of repair, although its need wasn't as great as the first copy. Part of the block had simply pulled away from the spine, but the book was still in one piece.
In the event, I decided to repair both, if only for the practice. After all, that way there was a good chance I'd end up with one readable copy. Right?
What I don't have, unfortunately, is any way of compressing the block against the spine while the glue dries. Hence it's likely further repairs will be required, should the books ever be read again. And reading them again is, after all, the point.
The glue I bought didn't come with a brush or indeed any kind of applicator, so I filched a bamboo skewer from my husband's massive collection and used that to apply glue along the edge of the block of the second copy. Then mashed the block back up against the spine. The book won't be as good as new, but maybe it'll be readable once it dries. Maybe?
The first book will be more difficult. I've tried to stick down some of the loose bits of spine, but they only pop up again as I have nothing to make them stay in place. Maybe tape would be the better option.
I wouldn't even be bothering if these books were still in print. Or would I? Hard to say.
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