Acid-free PVA glue. Weldbond is pretty available. I think Elmer's has some acid-free versions, but standard Glue-all is not.
Now you can luxuriate in a nice jail cell, but if your hand touches metal, I swear by my pretty flowered bonnet, I will end you.
Mal ,'Our Mrs. Reynolds'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Ginger - Jan 21, 2009 12:38:03 pm PST #8315 of 28476
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
Polter-Cow - Jan 21, 2009 1:41:51 pm PST #8316 of 28476
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Thanks, guys!
I found this:
4 oz. should be enough, right? I think I could probably repair my sun-melted copy of Jane Eyre, too.
Oh, it does look like I could find Weldbond at a local crafts store or something pretty easily. And that will work?
Why does it need to be acid-free? What would happen if I used regular Elmer's glue or rubber cement or something? Or, like, a hot glue gun?
Once I purchase something, I will be back to find out if there's anything special I need to do to make sure I glue it together right. I don't have a vise or anything.
Connie Neil - Jan 21, 2009 1:43:48 pm PST #8317 of 28476
brillig
Why does it need to be acid-free?
The acids in the glue will eat the paper, and you'll be doing this again in a while.
Of course, if you don't care about the paper of your books . . .
Polter-Cow - Jan 21, 2009 1:59:34 pm PST #8318 of 28476
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Acids eating paper? That's science-fiction mumbo-jumbo.
Connie Neil - Jan 21, 2009 2:04:43 pm PST #8319 of 28476
brillig
Acids eating paper? That's science-fiction mumbo-jumbo.
Sure, you little whipper-snapper. That lovely booky smell you get when you walk into a library? That's the smell of books dying an acidy death.
Polter-Cow - Jan 21, 2009 2:06:45 pm PST #8320 of 28476
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
That's horrible!
Connie Neil - Jan 21, 2009 2:07:07 pm PST #8321 of 28476
brillig
Whipper-snapper. Snapper of whips? Therefore, is Indiana Jones a whipper-snapper?
Connie Neil - Jan 21, 2009 2:07:36 pm PST #8322 of 28476
brillig
That's horrible!
Yup. I love it and hate it at the same time.
Fay - Jan 21, 2009 2:26:50 pm PST #8323 of 28476
"Fuck Western ideologically-motivated gender identification!" Sulu gasped, and came.
That's the smell of books dying an acidy death.
And so they are! Alas that they are so;
To die, even as they to perfection grow.
joins Sunil in the traumatised corner, and tries to ignore the tiny rustling screams of dying books.
Connie Neil - Jan 21, 2009 2:30:36 pm PST #8324 of 28476
brillig
Acid in the paper is what causes old books to have such fragile pages. When books were more treasures and less mass-produced, they were printed on higher quality rag paper. It's the acids from wood pulp that is the problem. Really early books were printed on vellum (sheepskin) and parchment (which is rag, I think), which lasts forever and is why we still have things like the Gutenberg Bible and near-original Chaucers.
Edit
the tiny rustling screams of dying books
What a macabre image. When I walk into a library or bookstore and smell that wonderful, sad odor, I want to grab all the books and promise them I'll save them.
I didn't smell that at the Huntington Library. Of course, those folks know how to preserve a book.