Book Binding Question.

I have recently bought a paperback book from 1938. The book is becoming
unattached from the thin card cover. The spine was attached to the pages
only on the spine not on the face of the pages. I was wondering - if I was
going to glue this spine on or fix this book again how would I go about it
or what glue would I be best to use. This was quite an expensive book and I
haven't seen many coming up for sale so I would want to do the best job I
could to preserve this book.

Thanks for any help.

Thanks for your help. I realise that paperbacks in general aren't
valuable - but this is an Irish book and not very many of them would have
been printed. And published by a smaller publisher than Penguin etc.



Thanks again.






"michael adams" wrote in message
...

"Matalog" wrote in message
...

I have recently bought a paperback book from 1938. The book is becoming
unattached from the thin card cover. The spine was attached to the
pages
only on the spine not on the face of the pages. I was wondering - if I
was going to glue this spine on or fix this book again how would I go
about it or what glue would I be best to use. This was quite an
expensive book and I haven't seen many coming up for sale so I would
want to do the best job I could to preserve this book.

Thanks for any help.



The spine would have been glued with animal glue or gum. Use
ordinary brown gum or cold water paste or similar. As all these can be
reversed using warm water. Don't on any account use synthetics such as
"white glue" or PVA or similar as these can't subsequently be removed,
and quite obviously aren't original.

The fact that paperbacks don't come up for sale all that often doesn't
make them valuable BTW. I have shelf loads of 30's Pelicans and Penguins
in good to very good to fine condition. I bought many of them for £1 or
£2 over the past 20 or so years and the majority are probably still only
worth around £3 or £4 at most.



michael adams

...

"michael adams" wrote in message ...
"Matalog" wrote in message
...

[...] some snippage

The fact that paperbacks don't come up for sale all that often doesn't
make them valuable BTW. I have shelf loads of 30's Pelicans and Penguins
in good to very good to fine condition. I bought many of them for £1 or
£2 over the past 20 or so years and the majority are probably still only
worth around £3 or £4 at most.

Well, you seem to be getting at the point I was
trying to make a couple of weeks back when all
the howling began. For the most part, mass
market paperbacks just are not worth very much
money. Of course, that situation could change
fairly rapidly if more people begin collecting
them. Books like THE GREAT AMERICAN PAPERBACK
help, of course. But paperback collecting has
not yet really taken off.

One example I can give is with a San Diego
county shop that bags most of its "vintage
paperbacks" and prices most of them at three
dollars. They -- even those from the 50's --
don't sell quickly at all, the owner tells me.
In fact, at the three dollar price the store
sells more of the vintage paperbacks to people
who simply want a reading copy of an out of
print book, than to actual paperback collectors.

Of course, with currently popular authors,
there is a sort of spillover effect regarding
vintage paperbacks. Those by Phil Dick,
Jack Kerouac, Raymond Chandler, etc., invariably
sell quickly, even those published in the 1970's,
which not everyone calls "vintage." But the p.b.'s
many serious collectors like, such as the old Avons
by mostly unremembered authors but with garishly
original cover illustrations sell generally much
slower.

My point is that even though this store probably
has the county's best selection of vintage paperbacks,
they don't sell a great of many of them to serious
paperback collectors, so you have to wonder how many
serious paperback collectors there are.

The majority of used bookstores in the county don't even
have a vintage paperback shelf. The owners probably
conclude that not enough customers ask for them and/or
are not willing to pay enough for them to make them
worth bothering with. Bookstores generally mix their
vintage paperbacks in with their regular paperback
selection, though if a p.b. strikes the owner as
looking old and interesting, he or she might add
a couple of dollars to the price.

On the other hand, that is what adds to the fun
of collecting vintage paperbacks. To the general
public today, old p.b.'s are held to have very
little value, so they still show up at garage sales,
second hand stores, etc. (where you are not going
to find any 1950's comic books or any beautiful
pictorial hard covers from late 19th century).
As a result of the low recogition of paperback
collecting by the public, paperback collectors
can still make some great finds (and some great
buys at under one dollar).


Mr. Palmer
Room 314



michael adams

...

Michael Adams wrote:

The spine would have been glued with animal glue or gum.
Use ordinary brown gum or cold water paste or similar.
As all these can be reversed using warm water. Don't
on any account use synthetics such as "white glue" or PVA
or similar as these can't subsequently be removed, and quite
obviously aren't original.

John A. Stovall replied:

Why would you suggest this? I would think a conservation glue
such a as Jade 403N would be the preferred glue.

I think Michael suggests it because it is reversible, but I wonder how
reversible it would actually be in practice. If, for some reason, someone
did want to reverse the repair, wouldn't they have a hard time applying the
warm water without damaging the pages?

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com