It’s from ‘71 and she lent me a book for school, but i wanted to know if the full collection is worth something, because i know that the book won’t be in good state by the end of the semester.

So, Is it worth something?

I have a collection of valuable books that were in a house fire. Not directly damaged but they have a faint smoke smell as they were rooms away from the fire behind some closed doors. Far less bad than times I have bought books from people that were smokers. We are getting our general items cleaned by company using ozone etc. I am nervous about leaving the books with people I don't know, I was wondering if anyone knew if it might be just as effective to leave them in a plastic bin with baking soda/ activated charcoal. I am not in a rush so I could do this for a year swapping out the baking soda/charcoal monthly or so. If this is not the right forum for this I am sorry and please delete. Thanks

hello guys, I need some advice on book storage. in this more humid season I would like to avoid that the books in my bedroom get moldy. I read on the internet about silica sachets and salt to remove humidity from the environment. Do you think they are enough? (I live on an island, in a particularly windy and humid city)

My dad recently passed and he left me his collection of Easton Press books. I am packing them up to store them (I’m moving around quite a bit and need to settle down in one spot before I display them) and I had some questions on best way to ensure the safety of the books.

They will go in a climate-controlled storage unit. I have small heavy duty cardboard boxes for them to go in. Any recommendations on how I pack them?

I’ve attached a photo of them laying flat in a box — should I keep them flat or stand them upright? And how should I manage empty space in the boxes?

Any other recommendations on keeping these safe?

I'm not sure if this is allowed but I need the help of the reddit gods and I don't know where else to go.

When I was a kid, we had this vintage cookie recipe book that has since gone missing. It had the best recipes and was highly cherished. It disappeared during a move back in 2018 and I've been looking for it ever since.

It was ancient to me when I was a kid. Probably bought pre-90s but I can't be sure, it also could have been second hand. It definitely had the vibe and the font of like 60s cookbooks but I was a kid and didn't really pay attention to it very much. It was small, though. Probably just a bit bigger than a note card and bound at the top. It probably had around 100 cookie recipes. The front just said cookies and had a cartoon dog or something on it. It was that real weird cookbook paper. Kinda waxy, kinda not. Very easily prone to stains.

Please, any help or ideas. I spend an hour or so trying to Google it every few weeks/months and I can't find anything.

I know caption sounds silly but I live in Louisiana and this week we hit a cold front that’s lasted a week so far. On the the first day of dipped weather, I noticed some pages to an art book I had *opened from the post instantly grow wavy — which freaked me out as I have a pretty sizable (and valuable) book collection.

Doing some quick research, I was prompted to look into getting a dehumidifier, which, fortunately my landlord had a spare of and was kind enough to lend me. I immediately put it in my library room and went to go start using it when I did an additional quick Google search and I read something that suggested a sudden change in humidity level in a room, even if using a dehumidifier, can cause potential damage to pages all the same.

Am I overthinking this? Am I misunderstanding something? Humidity is presently at 72 where I live, tempt is 48.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as it is my first time using a device such as this to attempt to thwart dampness in pages. Thank you in advance!

I’ve recently been gifted some mid-century books from a retired professor in a tropical country where humidity can be extreme in some parts of the year and high temperatures are a thing the rest of the year. As you can see, some are already worse for wear. Some sat on a public library shelf for decades, neglected, and others still have a camphor smell (from moth balls, I expect) months after being given to me.

I plan on keeping them out of sunlight in a room with a dehumidifier (my man cave). I’ve also thought about having a small container of silica on the shelf, if I choose to put them in a wood and glass cabinet.

My questions to you all is related to air circulation. Given my climate, should I opt for an open bookshelf, or a closed cabinet with silica?

Any other advice / tips for helping these old books beyond my layman ideas?

Hello, I’m very new to reading (at least on my own time), I’m 17 and just starting to get into it this year. I am interested in history and philosophy books. I keep looking at eBay and seeing these old books that I would be interested in reading. I was wondering if buying International Collectors Library books or other cheaper, older, hardcovers would give me issues any issues? May sound like a dumb question but like I said, I don’t know much about it.

Got these books from an old (70y/o) collector. I think they look awesome

After hearing about that first edition Harry Potter book that sold for a ton of money, I immediately went to my childhood book collection to see if I had any first editions.

I looked up how to tell if it was a first edition and it said that if there was a 1 in the printing line thing, then it was a first printing. But how do tell if it's a first edition? And is a first printing still good? Is it only good if it's both? I've found tons in my collection with the lowest number being one, so I'm not so sure I've got it right now?

What's the difference guys? And are first editions/printings worth much?

(I'm slow and fairly new to proper book collecting so please explain it me like I'm four)

If anyone wants to have a look at the copyright pages and check the info for me, I'll try and take a few pics/link them somewhere

My mother was the illustrator for this book in 1996. She just passed last week and I’m trying to find a copy of it. Can anyone help?

Found 2010 at a thrift store, I’m so lucky 😭😭 ngl it does irk me that there’s a size difference compared to the first book(and even slightly compared to the 3rd?!!). But the fact that they are all 1st edition makes up for it.

I like reading biographies but prefer them to be phrased neutrally, as in minimal editorializing like ‘person was good’ or ‘person was bad’. Is there any good resources online for this sort of thing?

Although my country has no banned books we also don't get a lot of international books.

what banned books do you all know about that i should get?

Sorry if this is the wrong group to post this in!

I saw this image at the front of a Boys Own Annual (can’t remember exactly when the book is from unfortunately) and I’ve been trying to find more info on it. Googling only seems to produce more examples of it in other books but with no info.

Anyone know anything about it?