Book Preservation

What do you do to preserve your books? I recently learned this trick of using plastic wrap to, well, wrap your books like you would do with food, which I think is a nice hack. Do you have any other tricks?

Brown paper was supposedly a standard for preserving textbooks during my parents' times. More aesthetic than plastic wrap imo.

>>2628 Unless they're printed on soykafty paper, store your books out of sunlight at 64-68ºF (18-20ºC) and 45-55% relative humidity and they'll be fine for centuries. The last time you went into a library with books that are hundreds of years old, did you see them wrapped in plastic?

>>2630 >did you see them wrapped in plastic? No, but they were also completely falling apart.

>>2629 That's interesting, but with brown paper you can't tell which book is which just by looking.

>>2633 i mean you could... label the outside? that would seem the thing to do if they think youre technical, go crude

>>2628 Here is my preservation method: tar -c -f books.tar ~/docs/books ; gzip books.tar

Is it true that storing books spine side down is better for them? Or am I just crazy and made that up on my own?

>>2686 Never heard that. I think storing them flat is ideal.

>>2648 >not tar -czf books.tar.gz ~/docs/books`

>>2686 depends on the spine, but in most cases I know the exact opposite is true. you probably are crazy

>>2648 speaking of, whats a good ereader /lit/ certified?

>>2692 You forgot: par2 c -r20 books.tar.gz.par2 books.tar.gz Can you truly rely on your storage media?

>>2628 Plastic wrap can trap moisture against the books, ruining them by causing them to rot and encouraging the growth of mildew. Generally speaking, your books can sit on the shelf for centuries and they'll be just fine. Older books will have the pages yellow with age, newer books printed on acid-free paper won't; they'll still be readable. I have an entire room of my house that is 'the library'; bookshelves covered with books top to bottom, and cardboard boxes filled with more boxes stacked to the ceiling. All carefully catalogued and organized, though not always readily accessible. The only special care I take to preserve them is scattering some mothballs through the room once a year to discourage insects and rodents from taking up residence and chewing on the books. Any particularly valuable books, like a few I own from the 1800's (and one from the 1700's) I keep inside a military ammo can; the cans are hermetically sealed with a rubber gasket; I wrap the books in a piece of cloth to protect them from getting banged around, place them in the can with a silica gel packet to absorb any moisture, and close the can. Done. Most of my older books go on the shelf with all my 20th and 21st century books; they've lasted this long just sitting on the shelf, so why bother with more elaborate measures?

I fully expect most of my books to outlive my body, so I'm not too worried about their degradation. As for actual preservation - that is, keeping them alive in human memory - that can only be done by having other living humans read them. But they have such grubby hands...

>>2629 I'm taking notes here. >>2775 The best way we know of preserving information kept in books is by copying them. It's not the item that really matters, but the soul hidden in its letters. On the contrary, I feel emotionally attached to books that are older than me. There's something beautiful when I think they have passed from hands to hands, keeping their knowledge inside.