Paperbacks stored horizontally

I'm a little out of my depth here, as I'm not a professional collector,
and my books are mostly paperbacks, so hopefully someone will indulge me.

I have several hundred paperbacks that have been sitting on my bookshelves
for about a year and a half (they were in storage until then). The
shelves are unfortunately a bit large for paperbacks, ranging from 12 to
15 inches in height. So when I unpacked, to make the most of space I
stacked them horizontally.

Today I decided it was time to go through and organize a little, and I
found to my dismay that most of the stacks had dust in between the books.
I expected dust on the top books (which I had been vacuuming irregularly),
but in between? Furthermore, many of the covers were bowed, and in some
cases the books were slightly warped as if from water.

The shelves are in a spot where they get indirect sunlight (diluted
through blinds), but the spines don't seem to be fading so I haven't
worried.

I've started arranging the books vertically on some of the smaller
shelves, but if I do this to all of them, I'll run out of room and have to
put some in boxes.

I guess what I'm wondering is, does horizontal storage alone explain the
warping, or is that a product of indirect sunlight, or a combination of
the two, or something else entirely like humidity? How on earth is that
dust getting in between the books? I wasn't packing them all the way to
the top horizontally -- would that help keep them flat and keep the dust
out? And what effect is the sunlight having on this -- do I need darker
blinds or curtains?

thanks for any help
Karl

On Jan 20, 2:33*pm, KJH wrote:
I'm a little out of my depth here, as I'm not a professional collector,
and my books are mostly paperbacks, so hopefully someone will indulge me.

I have several hundred paperbacks that have been sitting on my bookshelves
for about a year and a half (they were in storage until then). *The
shelves are unfortunately a bit large for paperbacks, ranging from 12 to
15 inches in height. *So when I unpacked, to make the most of space I
stacked them horizontally.

Today I decided it was time to go through and organize a little, and I
found to my dismay that most of the stacks had dust in between the books. *
I expected dust on the top books (which I had been vacuuming irregularly),
but in between? *Furthermore, many of the covers were bowed, and in some
cases the books were slightly warped as if from water.

The shelves are in a spot where they get indirect sunlight (diluted
through blinds), but the spines don't seem to be fading so I haven't
worried. *

I've started arranging the books vertically on some of the smaller
shelves, but if I do this to all of them, I'll run out of room and have to
put some in boxes.

I guess what I'm wondering is, does horizontal storage alone explain the
warping, or is that a product of indirect sunlight, or a combination of
the two, or something else entirely like humidity? *How on earth is that
dust getting in between the books? *I wasn't packing them all the way to
the top horizontally -- would that help keep them flat and keep the dust
out? *And what effect is the sunlight having on this -- do I need darker
blinds or curtains?

I can't answer all your questions, but I can say that
stacking paperbacks horizontally does not in and of
itself harm them, unless maybe you are stacking
them 300 books high, which would be putting a
lot of weight on the books at the bottom. However,
while making a stack of two or three dozen books
will not harm them, you could cause damage to
your paperbacks by carelessly taking them out
of the lower part of the stack and shoving them
back in. That is why vertical shelving is better.
Anyway, if your books were harmed, it is likely
not the horizontal stacking but some of the other
factors you mention.

[Memo from the upstairs office.]

thanks for any help
Karl

On 2008-01-24, Bill wrote:

On Jan 20, 2:33Â*pm, KJH wrote:
I'm a little out of my depth here, as I'm not a professional collector,
and my books are mostly paperbacks, so hopefully someone will indulge me.

I have several hundred paperbacks that have been sitting on my bookshelves
for about a year and a half (they were in storage until then). Â*The
shelves are unfortunately a bit large for paperbacks, ranging from 12 to
15 inches in height. Â*So when I unpacked, to make the most of space I
stacked them horizontally.

Today I decided it was time to go through and organize a little, and I
found to my dismay that most of the stacks had dust in between the books. Â*
I expected dust on the top books (which I had been vacuuming irregularly),
but in between? Â*Furthermore, many of the covers were bowed, and in some
cases the books were slightly warped as if from water.

The shelves are in a spot where they get indirect sunlight (diluted
through blinds), but the spines don't seem to be fading so I haven't
worried. Â*

I've started arranging the books vertically on some of the smaller
shelves, but if I do this to all of them, I'll run out of room and have to
put some in boxes.

I guess what I'm wondering is, does horizontal storage alone explain the
warping, or is that a product of indirect sunlight, or a combination of
the two, or something else entirely like humidity? Â*How on earth is that
dust getting in between the books? Â*I wasn't packing them all the way to
the top horizontally -- would that help keep them flat and keep the dust
out? Â*And what effect is the sunlight having on this -- do I need darker
blinds or curtains?

I can't answer all your questions, but I can say that stacking
paperbacks horizontally does not in and of itself harm them, unless
maybe you are stacking them 300 books high, which would be putting a
lot of weight on the books at the bottom. However, while making a
stack of two or three dozen books will not harm them, you could
cause damage to your paperbacks by carelessly taking them out of the
lower part of the stack and shoving them back in. That is why
vertical shelving is better. Anyway, if your books were harmed, it
is likely not the horizontal stacking but some of the other factors
you mention.

I think a fellow kibologist has some expertise in this area.

--
The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to
chance. [Robert R. Coveyou]

On Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:00:30 +0000, Adam Funk wrote:
On 2008-01-24, Bill wrote:
On Jan 20, 2:33Â*pm, KJH wrote:
I have several hundred paperbacks that have been sitting on my bookshelves
for about a year and a half (they were in storage until then). Â*The
shelves are unfortunately a bit large for paperbacks, ranging from 12 to
15 inches in height. Â*So when I unpacked, to make the most of space I
stacked them horizontally.

Today I decided it was time to go through and organize a little, and I
found to my dismay that most of the stacks had dust in between the books.
I expected dust on the top books (which I had been vacuuming irregularly),
but in between? Â*Furthermore, many of the covers were bowed, and in some
cases the books were slightly warped as if from water.

??? Okay, something is weird here ... and my first suspicion is that your
house-or-apartment has a fairly high humidity content in its air'n'stuff. Cuz
normally, the result of stacking paperbacks horizontally, by which I mean
piling them one on top of another in a stack, as opposed to "file them
vertically on a shelf so they look like the rows of books you see in people's
bookshelves on television or at the library", is that dust can't get -in-
between the books (though it will settle nicely on any bit of surface exposed
because book A is slightly larger than book B on top of it, or is misaligned
with B), and the books naturally flatten themselves, except maybe for the one
or two on top of the pile.

So I'd check whether you're stacking these books actually IN a bathroom, or
next to a humidifier, or have small children who are regularly spilling drinks
on them, or have pets who pee on them, or something else involving concentrated
humidity...

The shelves are in a spot where they get indirect sunlight (diluted
through blinds), but the spines don't seem to be fading so I haven't
worried. Â*

Indirect sunlight won't generally warp them, though as you note it'll
eventually fade them.

I've started arranging the books vertically on some of the smaller
shelves, but if I do this to all of them, I'll run out of room and have to
put some in boxes.

I guess what I'm wondering is, does horizontal storage alone explain the
warping, or is that a product of indirect sunlight, or a combination of
the two, or something else entirely like humidity? Â*How on earth is that
dust getting in between the books? Â*I wasn't packing them all the way to
the top horizontally -- would that help keep them flat and keep the dust
out? Â*And what effect is the sunlight having on this -- do I need darker
blinds or curtains?

Darker blinds, or curtains (even white curtains), won't hurt. But you have put
your little finger on my #1 suspect in the middle of that paragraph:
hu mi di ty!

I can't answer all your questions, but I can say that stacking
paperbacks horizontally does not in and of itself harm them, unless
maybe you are stacking them 300 books high, which would be putting a
lot of weight on the books at the bottom.

From my own experiments, stacking them five foot tall doesn't hurt the ones
on the bottom; yes there's some weight on them ... but it's weight devoted
to -flattening- them and generally making them compressed-er, not to bending
them or warping them (unless your pile is off-kilter, in which case all bets
are off, of course).

However, while making a
stack of two or three dozen books will not harm them, you could
cause damage to your paperbacks by carelessly taking them out of the
lower part of the stack and shoving them back in. That is why
vertical shelving is better. Anyway, if your books were harmed, it
is likely not the horizontal stacking but some of the other factors
you mention.

Well - if one has enough books that one has to stack them horizontally, one
is not going to be taking any -particular- book out very often, or fiddling
with any particular stack. But yes, take a little care when extracting the
books (even the ones on the top might scrape or otherwise contact the shelf
above them), and get used to re-inserting them by taking the stack on top of
where they go out and putting it back in on top of them. Or create a "to be
filed" area that also contains books you've bought recently, and every so
often go through that and 'shuffle' _everything_ in it into your shelves,
which will result in various sections moving somewhat from where they were.
(And will eventually cause you to realize that you once again do not own
enough shelves and don't have anywhere to put new shelves... at which point
I recommend cardboard moving boxes.)

I think a fellow kibologist has some expertise in this area.

A bit. A bit.

Dave
--
\/David DeLaney posting from "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeableBLINK
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.