Hello my dear bibliophiles out there, I’m extremely happy to meet you all with few very useful lifesaving tips and tricks to safeguard your beloved books from all the possible dangers that might come their way. The safety of the book is the prime concern of any book lovers. That sense of over-protectiveness one feels towards their books is immense. This may sound crazy to the non-book reading community but it isn’t, the trepidation is indeed deep. Believe me I totally understand that feeling because I’m no way any different from you all. I do craziest of things to keep my books safe and secure, now you get the picture that we all fall in the same category right ?
Today I will be sharing my methods of maintaining the beauty and the life of my books. I follow these self imposed rules devotedly without any excuses and that is why they are alive and exquisite. So come let’s dive into the process of making our books immortal. Ready ?
- First of all make sure your hands are clean before laying your hands on the book. This is the most important thing to be followed because we cannot afford to leave stain marks on the book.
- The books should be handled very gently as if you’re dealing with a flower or a baby. Use both the hands while reading.
- Don’t bend the paperbacks beyond its limit or open it flat, once it is done bringing the book back to its original position is nearly impossible. In case of hardcover remove the book wrapper provided while reading and put them on after finishing it. Having them on while reading may tend to damage the cover as well as the book.
- Always use bookmarks, preferably thinner ones are appreciated. Never ever think about the idea of dog-earring a book, it is the biggest of crimes you could commit to a book.
- Writing on books ….. Well it is a complicated topic, most of the people like writing on the books and most don’t. I personally don’t encourage writing anything on books because many a time I end up spoiling it. If I like something so very much I will underline those phrases neatly using pencils alone (Only if that book is mine) or else I will make a note of it in my notes. So my suggestion is if you really can’t stop yourself from writing on books then you can always maintain a specialized book journal for that very purpose.
- The way we turn the pages also brings an impact on the look and life of the books, so turn the pages gently and carefully without folding or scrambling it.
- Do not take the books anywhere near food or water as they might accidentally damage the book.
- Hold the book by its spine and don’t bend the spine too much which will damage the book permanently or in most occasions the pages might fall apart.
- Organize the books properly because the possibility of getting damaged when organized is very low. Stacking the books too tightly will lead to warping and while removing the book from the shelf support the book by its spine.
- This is quite an embarrassing part, do not lend your books to others. This may sound evil because knowledge is for to share but there is no point in lending your books to people who don’t value and take care of them as you do. The worst part is, some might even lose the borrowed books meh! I do lend books to my friends but that list is very short. I first analyse their way of treating a book, once satisfied with their behavior I will lend it to them. If you’re aren’t interested in lending but neither have the heart to deny when asked upon, just put up a sign board saying “Books are not lent” seeing this people will restrain themselves from asking, as simple as that. There is also another problem with lending books, some friends doesn’t have the habit of returning the books back, to those people you can kindly remind them about it, don’t feel bad or uncertain or embarrassed because books are just like kids to you isn’t it ? So there is nothing wrong in it.
- Don’t keep the books accessible for kids and pets, you know how they are. If it’s damaged you cannot even blame them, can you ? All you can do is simply keep the books far away from them.
- Dusting the books every now and then is mandatory to maintains its first look.
These are the few tips and ticks that I can vividly think of right now. If you have something more don’t forget to leave in the comment section. If you like my ideas you can also follow a thing or two.
P.S : If you’re borrowing books from me then you should definitely follow my rules without fail. Lol!
Happy Reading Folks!!!!
