- 1). Clean book jackets and covers with a book-cleaning compound. The compound can be purchased from some office supply houses and from library supply companies. Use a tiny amount of the compound on a cloth to clean cloth bindings and clear-plastic dust jackets.
- 2). Deodorize books that have been housed with smokers, pets or other causes of odors. Place book-deodorizing granules or baking soda in a cloth bag. Place the book and deodorizing bag in a loose plastic bag, and tape firmly shut. Check periodically to see if the odor has dissipated.
- 3). Use a crumbly art gum eraser to remove pencil marks, and a kneaded art eraser to get into cracks where the art gum eraser won't reach. Test a bit of the text before doing any serious erasing. Some inexpensive paperbacks are printed with soy ink, which tends to rub off easily. The kneaded eraser can be used to carefully erase between lines, avoiding the text.
- 4). Remove crayon marks by first scraping the wax from the crayon off the surface of the paper. Then place a piece of blotting paper on top of the marks, and iron the page with a warm iron. The wax will melt and transfer to the blotter, hopefully with the colored dye as well. Complete removal of crayon is nearly impossible; sometimes you have to settle for mitigating the damage.
- 5). Replace lost pages. If you happen to have a second copy of the book that is in much worse shape than the one you are repairing, you can use it for spare parts. If you do not have a spare-parts book, the next best thing is to make a copy of the missing page. Check the replacement page for size, and double check to make sure it is the right page. Trim the replacement page as needed.
- 6). Lightly paint the inner edge of the replacement page with a flexible glue that will dry clear. Do not put glue on the front or back surfaces of the page. Open the book to the missing page and carefully insert the replacement page. Place strips of waxed paper on both sides of the page to prevent accidentally gluing the pages closed. Close the book, and let it dry under pressure. A stack of encyclopedias will work fine as a weight.
- 7). Repair broken spines on paperbacks. Gently peel back the cardboard spine covering. Make every effort not to damage the cardboard. Cut a piece of cheesecloth the width of the spine. Coat the spine with padding compound, a flexible glue that is used in making note pads. Press the cheesecloth to the spine. The glue will ooze up through the cloth. Smooth the cardboard spine parts back over the cheese cloth. Place between two Masonite boards, and rubber band together. Let dry.
- 8). Repair broken spines on hardcover books. Carefully loosen the end papers from the edge of the back cover, and open the spine cover back so you can examine how the book is bound. If it is stitched together, you may need to restitch the sections together. Use a long doll needle to pull the thread through the layers. Use a needle-nosed pair of pliers to pull the needle through the papers.
- 9). Cut a piece of cheese cloth that will go across the ends of the pages and lap over on the front and back an inch. Cover the spine end of the book pages with a light coating of padding compound. Press the cheesecloth over the ends, trim the top and bottom to make sure it will not show above the spine cover. Glue the cheese cloth to the backside of the end papers, then glue the back cover to the cheese cloth. Repeat on the front cover if necessary. Place Masonite boards on both sides of the book, and clamp. Let dry for several days before checking.
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