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Making books your own



 
 
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  #41  
Old October 9th 04, 09:35 PM
Bill Palmer
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"michael adams" wrote in message ...
"Bill Palmer" wrote in message
m...


[...]

There may be around 10 or so books current at any one time
I might add, but the clingfilm is removed when they are
"finished". A rather childish concept perhaps, but there
you go. A fair proportion of which will be re-read - and
thus temporarily recovered. I've never given any great
thought to the more tactile aspects of the long chain
polymers myself, but a tightly clingfilmed volume does
attain a certain charm all of its own. Clingfilm is the
generic UK name for very thin polythene film you use to
wrap sandwiches in, btw.


Maybe that is different than the things I have
seen pulled over cloth boards. The coverings I
am referring to are made of a heavy plastic, rather
like what you see over seatcovers of some old cars,
and which was in vogue, as I understand it, on auto
seatcovers in the 1960's. Basically, it is nothing
but a sort of sheaf of clear heavy plastic. These
things are worse than tacky-looking, they are horrible.
Of course, if the cloth is stained and bubbled, I
guess it would not matter. TDhe whole thing gets
into the differing philosophies of collectors. For
instance, I think those Scribner reprints from the
1980's with the N. C. Wyeth illustrations are superb.
Yet, a certain type of collector would rather have
a stained, shaken, bubbled-up 1915 "first edition"
of one of those than a lovely reprint. On top
of that, even if that same collector has one of the
firsts of those Wyeth Scribners in anything close
to as good condition as the reprints, then they
have a book worth hundreds of dollars that they
have to take very special care of and probably
worry about. So, getting back to my main point,
I guess if someone is the sort of collector who
will keep ratty looking books around simply because
they are firsts, old, whatever, than I suppose those
detestable heavy plastic sheaths could actually
improve the looks of his or her book collection...
But over respectable board cloth? No way.

Mr. Palmer
Room 314




michael adams






Mr. Palmer
Room 314


michael adams








Mr. Palmer
Room 314

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  #42  
Old November 8th 04, 06:02 PM
Allan Adler
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(Bill Palmer) writes:

In fact, you have almost brought me to the point
where I will visit the chemistry department of
U.C. San Diego and see if I can get a couple of
volunteer grad students to run a test on my book
and then determine if there is even potentially
enough bleach remaining at those page edges to
cause any future damage to the volume.


I once left a leaf from a tree in bleach and observed its disintegration
over a period of days, so I'm naturally skeptical about the wisdom of
using bleach to improve the appearance of books. However, I think it
would be interesting to find out what a couple of volunteer grad students
at U.C. San Diego could come up with, and you might want to cross post
your experiences with this to sci.chem to get further feedback.

I'm not a chemist but I'm interested in chemistry. There is something called
paper chromatography, wherein some solvents diffuse through paper and
differentially carry certain solutes one is trying to separate. Probably
bleach is not recommended for this, since it is likely to attack the
substance one wants to study, but the physical and chemical principles
of this diffusion are probably well understood. So, the chemists, either
at U.C.San Diego or on sci.chem, might be able to offer some useful
quantitative predictions regarding the diffusion and damage that your
bleach techniques might cause.

There are probably sufficiently small quantities of bleach that won't cause
significant damage (e.g. one molecule), but they might be a lot smaller
than the amount you need to see immediate improvement in the appearance
of the page. One thing that chemists might know something about is techniques
for applying much smaller amounts of bleach, within safe limits, and knowing
how long to wait and how to evaluate partial improvements. A cue tip
applicator may not be one of their recommendations, but I don't want to
prejudge the matter.

Have you considered setting up a website describing in detail your techniques
for improving, in your perception, the appearance of your books? That would
enable the techniques to be examined and evaluated without the distraction
of the interpersonal conflicts that your postings seem to inspire on this
group. Regarding the latter, I think that part of the problem is that
there are not enough other groups dealing with aspects of book ownership,
so that a number of issues that are, strictly speaking, off-topic for
this group really have no suitable venue. So, I think there might be
some attention given to the possibility of creating some other book
groups to meet that need. I don't know the exact process but you could
look into it. Alternatively, your website could host a discussion group
devoted to this topic that people could post to.

Since you do seem to be open to suggestions for improving your techniques,
I hope your management of your website will reflect that openness. It
might also be a good idea to include links to other pages on restoration
and preservation as well as references to definitive works on care,
preservation and restoration of books. Particularly useful, at your
website, would be careful attention and reference to places where your
techniques differ from what is recommended and your reasons for your
preferring such variation. Particularly welcome, especially to readers
of this group I think, would be a standard disclaimer (both at your website
and at the end of your postings) stating clearly that you are not
recommending your techniques as a method of restoration or preservation
or care of books, but simply as a method of improving their appearance
in the short term.

The other issues that have been raised in this thread are interesting
from historical points of view. Regarding the matter of saving every
scrap of paper, there is a Geniza somewhere (Jerusalem?) where scraps
of paper were saved for centuries under the rationale that it was forbidden
to throw away anything on which the name of God might be written. The result
of centuries of this scrupulous scrap saving was a major historical treasure
trove. On the other hand, some important historical sources have survived
precisely because they were sacrificed, e.g. some medieval music is
only available because it was used as binding material for books that
came later. Piles of garbage and of feces are of historical importance
to archaeologists and paleontologists, and the landfills outside our cities
are emerging historical documents. Sometimes the effort to restore something
historical conflicts with the need to preserve something else that will
become historical. I'm not sure, but I think there was some issue like that
connected with Handel's residence in London.

Anyway, since Bill Palmer is open to suggestions about his techniques,
I would like to offer one which leaves open his options for how he wants
to groom his books. Namely, get an optical scanner and scan the book.
Do the improvements electronically on the scanned image, instead of
using white-out. Print out the improved pages of the book (there is probably
a way to do this so that the printout is on both sides of the page and, in the
case of two pages on one on each side, the central lines separating the two
pages are correctly aligned and the pages properly paginated) and bind them
as a fresh copy of the book. Put the original purchase in suitable storage
where it won't self-destruct while you're studying the best ways to improve
it. Meanwhile, you can give your own bound copy whatever binding you like,
whatever cover, etc., according to what you feel your living room needs to
look right. The beauty of it is that you can also experiment as you like on
your own printed copy without compromising your options for the original,
since you can always discard it and print out a new one if you happen to
screw it up.

You can even put designs on all the spines of your reprinted books which,
taken together, make your bookcase look like a mural from Pompei, or
whatever you like. And this can all be presented at your website, along
with pictures.

I guess there is one other newsgroup you might find useful for the kinds
of things you are trying to do, namely one devoted to crafts, such as
rec.crafts.misc or rec.crafts.bookbinding (if there is one), or maybe on
one devoted to interior decorating. People there are pretty knowledgeable
and there the topic might not ruffle as many feathers.

Just my two cents.
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.
  #43  
Old November 9th 04, 06:11 AM
William M. Klimon
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"Allan Adler" wrote in message
...

The other issues that have been raised in this thread are interesting
from historical points of view. Regarding the matter of saving every
scrap of paper, there is a Geniza somewhere (Jerusalem?) where scraps
of paper were saved for centuries under the rationale that it was
forbidden
to throw away anything on which the name of God might be written. The
result
of centuries of this scrupulous scrap saving was a major historical
treasure
trove.



You're thinking of the Cairo Genizah:

http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Taylor-Schechter/

Since that discovery, others have been looking for similar tombs of books,
like he

http://www.morasha.it/zehut/mp06_italian_ghenizah.html


William M. Klimon
http://www.catholicbookcollector.com



  #44  
Old November 13th 04, 06:34 AM
Bill Palmer
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Allan Adler wrote in message ...
(Bill Palmer) writes:

In fact, you have almost brought me to the point
where I will visit the chemistry department of
U.C. San Diego and see if I can get a couple of
volunteer grad students to run a test on my book
and then determine if there is even potentially
enough bleach remaining at those page edges to
cause any future damage to the volume.


Have you considered setting up a website describing in detail your techniques
for improving, in your perception, the appearance of your books?


[...] I appreciate your sharing your interesting thoughts,
and I have only trimmed them here to save space since they
were so recently posted on this thread. Essentially, though,
I am just not interested in devoting the amount of time to
the matter (of making alterations and improvements in
defaced books) as I think your notions would require.



You can even put designs on all the spines of your reprinted books which,
taken together, make your bookcase look like a mural from Pompei, or
whatever you like. And this can all be presented at your website, along
with pictures.


Clever idea, but it just isn't something in which
I would like to invest my time. In the first
place, the only books I was talking about
working on were those already defaced, either
by libraries or by other owners, such as those
who are not the authors of the book but who
write -- expecially those who SCRAWL --
inscriptions in the front of the book.
In fact, my original post could as well
as have been "Dealing with the unfortunate
results of book defacement" as "Making book
your own."

I guess there is one other newsgroup you might find useful for the kinds
of things you are trying to do, namely one devoted to crafts, such as
rec.crafts.misc or rec.crafts.bookbinding (if there is one), or maybe on
one devoted to interior decorating. People there are pretty knowledgeable
and there the topic might not ruffle as many feathers.


Well, I have been ruffling feathers since I got on
the net. Can't think of a more amusing pastime.
Whee...

Just my two cents.


In Usenet, where nobody gets paid for his or her
contributions, Reader Time Invested (RTI) is the
coin of the realm. I want you to know that my
reading time was well-invested in your comments.
How wonderful to encounter genuine thoughts,
instead of quips which have already been repeated
hundreds or thousands of times.

Mr. Palmer
Room 314
 




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