You will be hard pressed to find a public library volume that is not protected by plastic. And plastic of such a heavy guage, that it was most likely handed down to town hall as military surplus, once all the Caspers were done. (I have one book, which is unusual. It is a collection of astronomical maps with every single page plastic coated, similar to that of playing cards, to protect against dew.)
In school, we were required to cover all our books, even the ones used for writing. Since then, the years have gone by without me giving much further thought to the protective covering of books. 'Till about a week ago when my copy of Atlas Shrugged (yes, yes I know I’ve been battling to get through this book for 10 months now) accidentally fell into the bathtub. It has now puffed up to four times its already considerable initial size. It is completely spherical. Granted, in such an extreme case, a mere plastic sheath would not have prevented Rand’s magnum aqueous, but still.
So the other day I went to the CNA and bought a few rolls of what appears to be cling film (designed to stick all by itself, no tape required). The next step is to sort through my books, separate the ones I love from the ones I like, and start covering the former. At least I will feel like a responsible book owner for a while.
:
If that stuff from the CNA is glue-covered on one side you could use it for paperbacks, if you REALLY want to. My experience is that it sometimes shrinks slightly, causing the covers to warp; invariably you press it onto the spine, from which it will lift off the printing leaving a mess; and, once on it’ll never be able to be removed.
Generally - NO STICKY TAPE or any other tape that is stuck to ANY part of the original book or dustjacket, nor IN CONTACT with any part of the book - when it peels off after some years it leaves ghastly brown marks.
If the books are just reading copies - then ignore the above, but if they are part of your prized collection, sticky things are a no-no.
I use a fairly thick, stiffish plastic ( probably polythene ) folded carefully over the dustjackets of hardcover books, not stuck in any way. Sometimes the same over the hard cover if the book does not have a dustjacket, and it is pretty old.
Thanks for the heads up re the sticky stuff. I’m not a collector, and own no particularly valuable copies, except maybe for two first edition Ian Flemings, a Steinbeck and a Daphne du Maurier. The rest I’m quite happy to enjoy on my back next to the pool. (I’ve tried to refrain from reading in the tub since the Atlas incident).
Not since primary school. I think I should probably do it, but my collection seems to fill every room in the house, so it would be a project requiring the assistance of a couple of dozen egyptian slaves. Nah, let sleeping dogs lie.
I’ve got one set of books I really care about (LOTR and Hobbit illustrated editions), but they’re still in their original wrapping, I’ve got reading copies that I bought before them. Never bothered to cover books because I don’t have really valuable books. Might do that when I can justify buying Absolute Sandman because they are really expensive.
I got told off by the head of school for not covering some of my books and I’m a teacher! He even tutted at me. Which for me is far worse. Hate tutters
I (strongly dislike) it when people cover books with sticky plastic. It ruins them forever. Hence this idea of covering “prized” books seems backwards to me…
You want to protect your valuable asset, fair enough, but then by applying non-removable plastic film that’ll get hard, shrink, crack over the years, stain the paper, lift at the edges, make it all stiff…
…and all because said valuable asset is being read in the bath?! huh?!
The pragmatist in me says: If you value your books don’t take them to the bath in the first place… A much neater solution than ruining them in the name of preserving them.
(I really, really hate books that have been plasticized, super serial)
