In my local library I miraculously found Gaddis' Recognitions and JR. They're a donation by an american institute in our country and I'm quite certain they'll never be picked up by anyone else except me, therefore I want to fix their severe problem.Both of the books are very stiff, they are hard to open in the middle, the pages hold their stiff shape like a card, instead of bending softly like they should, and, as you can see, fan out like an accordion when I try to open them fully. Any restorationists here know how to fix this problem, I read something about gentle heat or controlled humidification.
>>24927637read through the whole book. that'll loosen the pages.
>>24927672This. You need to show old books love by reading them.
>>24927637you might be able to find someone to rebind them if you have the money
They look like glue-back binding on top of very acidic paper, there isn't much you can do. Sadly its the way many of these books were printed.If they are rare books you should leave them on a shelf with stable environment
>>24928839Okay, but there is another copy like the one on the right in another library, and although it's quite a rough shape, it opens very much better (though the spine is severely cracked)
