“Do not toast them over the fire...”🤣 I’ve actually done that to dry out a book I dropped in the snow. What a great article--I love my books! They are my friends, and I try to keep them in tip top shape. But since I have so many, I am constantly lending them out. Which brings me to my question... can you write a post giving us ideas on how to reclaim our books from our friends?! 😁
I tried making a joke with that, but couldn’t get there in time! Glad you thought of it too. Maybe the joke is so embedded in the word, it doesn’t need to be written :)
Thanks for the advice on how to take care and clean the books. Especially mold and bugs. I have a few old hardcovers that have those little bugs, and I had no idea how to get rid of them. Freeze them! That’ll teach ‘em.
And two current trends in book production that I really dislike: the matte cover. As you read it, it become sticky. As you try to wipe it down (to clean off fingerprints or food smudges) it becomes stickier. And then, the film begins to peel off on the edges. I now almost always put protective tape on these kind of covers before reading. And second, print on demand books. I recently ordered a collection of G. K. Chesterton’s poems. It was a recent edition, but browsing for books on Amazon, I found an affordable hardcover printed in 1958, shipped from the UK. The newer edition turned out to be print on demand. It’s still Chesterton, but even the formatting seems cheap. The 1958 edition is exactly what one would expect from a nice, time worn, but still in great condition book.
I’m with you on the matte lamination; the kind you’re describing is called soft-touch lamination, and it’s the worst.
Print on demand is a great technology for books without enough ongoing demand for a publisher to justify the cost of traditional printing and warehousing. But the product is usually inferior.
It’s also a way for bush-league publishers to make easy money on public domain books. They’re cheap to produce and there’s no inventory to manage. But they usually know next to nothing about real book production so the books look and feel like garbage. I’ve bought a few over the years and ended up throwing them away and getting something better rather than even trying to read them.
I actually read most of my substacks on a pad after my “newspaper” but I also use it for pdfs from Google Books or an occasional ebook when I urgently need to read something or it’s sufficiently cheaper to be a good alternative for a book that doesn’t need a place on my shelves.
“Do not toast them over the fire...”🤣 I’ve actually done that to dry out a book I dropped in the snow. What a great article--I love my books! They are my friends, and I try to keep them in tip top shape. But since I have so many, I am constantly lending them out. Which brings me to my question... can you write a post giving us ideas on how to reclaim our books from our friends?! 😁
LOL. I should do something on that. But I don’t know how it works. I normally figure if I loan a book, I’ll never get it back.
This post just makes me want to go to an old bookstore just to smell the books when I walk in.
Now that you say that, me too!
Stop that both of you, I’m supposed to be writing today!
LOL. Good luck!
And all this time I thought the Codex Sassoon was a hair-care product. Thanks for the enlightening update.
I tried making a joke with that, but couldn’t get there in time! Glad you thought of it too. Maybe the joke is so embedded in the word, it doesn’t need to be written :)
You were probably wise to give that joke the brush-off.
Doh!
Thanks for the advice on how to take care and clean the books. Especially mold and bugs. I have a few old hardcovers that have those little bugs, and I had no idea how to get rid of them. Freeze them! That’ll teach ‘em.
And two current trends in book production that I really dislike: the matte cover. As you read it, it become sticky. As you try to wipe it down (to clean off fingerprints or food smudges) it becomes stickier. And then, the film begins to peel off on the edges. I now almost always put protective tape on these kind of covers before reading. And second, print on demand books. I recently ordered a collection of G. K. Chesterton’s poems. It was a recent edition, but browsing for books on Amazon, I found an affordable hardcover printed in 1958, shipped from the UK. The newer edition turned out to be print on demand. It’s still Chesterton, but even the formatting seems cheap. The 1958 edition is exactly what one would expect from a nice, time worn, but still in great condition book.
I’m with you on the matte lamination; the kind you’re describing is called soft-touch lamination, and it’s the worst.
Print on demand is a great technology for books without enough ongoing demand for a publisher to justify the cost of traditional printing and warehousing. But the product is usually inferior.
It’s also a way for bush-league publishers to make easy money on public domain books. They’re cheap to produce and there’s no inventory to manage. But they usually know next to nothing about real book production so the books look and feel like garbage. I’ve bought a few over the years and ended up throwing them away and getting something better rather than even trying to read them.
Why do you think publishers resort to the soft-touch lamination? I’m assuming it’s money. Is it that much cheaper than other paperback covers?
It’s not necessarily cheaper than other options—at least not enough to matter. I think some people genuinely like it.
Since we are about to begin Lenting, I’ll abstain from judging people who like this abomination, and limit myself to a disagreeing with them :)
LOL, the wise choice.
We often fan out books and leave them over an air vent. Works pretty well!
I love this so much. What a great piece!
a perfectly apt ode to the love of the printed page
Yep. I was just thinking about this. 👍🏼
I actually read most of my substacks on a pad after my “newspaper” but I also use it for pdfs from Google Books or an occasional ebook when I urgently need to read something or it’s sufficiently cheaper to be a good alternative for a book that doesn’t need a place on my shelves.