Extend the Life of your Paperback

As a literature teacher, I have a wide variety of books that look like this:

 

Ignore me in the background, and focus on the tattered and torn quality of this sad, sad little book. 

Pages are falling out, the cover is bent and ripped, and the entire binding is suffering from a major structural malfunction.

Being a public school teacher, I have little to no budget to replace tattered and torn paperbacks each year, so I've come up with some tricks to extend the life of my treasured books, leaving my meager budget available to be spent on new and different books, rather than simply replacing what I already have.

I thought that since many of my readers are mothers of small children, it might be beneficial to pass some of these tips on to you. I know how rough little ones can be on their favorite stories, and how frustrating it can be to have to replace them.

Tip 1: How to fix a broken binding

If the cover of your book has mysteriously become detached from the pages, you'll need three strong rubber bands and white school glue

Put a fairly thick bead of white school glue down the binding on the inside of the cover. Put another fairly thick bead of white glue on the part of the pages that should be attached to the cover. Let dry for about 45 seconds (until tacky). Carefully line up the pages inside the cover, and firmly press together. Put the rubber bands around the outside of the book to hold everything in place firmly. Let dry for 24-48 hours. Remove rubber bands. Voila'! New binding.

Tip 2: How to reattach pages that have fallen out of the book. 

Materials needed are white school glue and rubber bands.

Repeat the process described above for reattaching a cover, only use a thin bead of glue instead of a thick one. If you use too much glue, you can end up accidentally gluing the pages together.

Tip 3: How to prevent damage to the cover of a paperback

You will need scissors, clear, self-adhesive contact paper

This tip saved my life. I do this to all of my new books now, as soon as I get them. Measure and cut the clear contact paper to fit the cover of your paperback with the backing still on. Imagine you are wrapping a present, but cut out notches for the binding on the top and the bottom since you cannot fold the contact paper over the edge of the cover at these points. Carefully peel off the backing and apply to the book, making sure to smooth out any air bubbles that may form.

This one tip could extend the life of your paperbacks by literally years. It virtually eliminates tearing, bending, and water damage to the front cover. 

Tip 4: How to prevent theft

Materials, ID labels, clear contact paper

I always stick an ID label on the FRONT cover of my paperbacks before I cover them with contact paper. It makes it much more difficult to rip the label off, and if you use bold colors and a large sticker, it's pretty easy to spot. It's also virtually impossible to remove the label once it's been covered up by the contact paper.

Clearly none of these methods is fail-proof, nor would I recommend doing any of these things to valuable, antique, or collector's books. If you have a son or daughter, though, who loves their paperback books literally  to death, these tips can help you extend the life of your paperbacks dramatically.

As a side note, I have found a fantastic online library at www.shelfari.com you can put in your books and create a virtual library and it has cool tools such as a feature that lets you mark which books you have lent out, which has made my life much easier. You can add friends and compare libraries, which could be fun, too.