Amph Your Preservation of Books and Comics

What measures do you undertake to preserve your books and comics?

After a hindsight of years, do you find that your hardcovers do in fact age slower than more affordable and hospitable paperbacks?

Some publishing houses offer special signed books, sometimes with slipcases. An author sig doesn't have value with me, but it got me thinking. Would you fork out a bit more if paperbacks came out in slipcases? It's a great way to delay the page yellowisation.

 

All in mylar. Some in nice slipcases.

 

No, it's not worth all that extra money for every book. A lost of mine get nicely preserved on bookcases (I'm sorry to say that the others hang out in plies because I've got far too many) but they're not in bad condition (I might have to eat my words in twenty years, though).

 

Economies of scales---the more you produce, the cheaper it costs to produce---could bring the paperback slipcase to as much as $2 extra purchase. Think trilogy boxed sets, only singles. Or perhaps publishers could offer special sales of these, but only through orders.

 

$2 a book is still a lot when you don't have a paycheck though I do like the idea. And those boxed trilogies have always been pretty cool.

 

I think the hard covers do last longer. My comics i have bagged, but most are not boarded. The bording will take up room that i don' have right now. Also in recent years, my comic collection has grown so much that it would cost me a large amount of money to go back board them. I want to, but right now it doesn't make sense for me to.

 

I have my comics bagged and boarded. My books are just on shelves.

 

That's the way to do it!

 

Same here. I have an entire bookshelf soley devoted to trades.

 

Hardcovers do last longer, but not every book is worth preserving for that long. I do have some trade paperbacks that have lost their covers after the third or fourth reading. For me, most books are consumables, and that applies particularly to paperbacks. I read them in the bath, and some have survived a dunking or two, and most have dog's ears. I do take a lot better care of my hardbacks, though, but that's mainly because they're so uncomfortable to hold in my small and rather weak hands that I rarely read them.

I have a few comics, most of these are of the pulp magazine type, and I store them in carton cases. I do have a few non-sf comics (mainly Asterix in French) with hard covers.

 

Of fantasy/sci-fi I mostly have paperbacks, except for three sw movie novelizations and ASOIAF Feast for Crows, and I store them in bookcase, same goes for comics. I take care of paperbacks so they are all in good condition even after numerous reads. Then again, Kushiels's Dart fell apert half way through the first reading

 

*makes mental note to never lend arwen_sith any books*

My paperback library seems to be holding up well. For instance, I've had the same copy of Terry Brooks' Elf Queen of Shannara for a decade and after multiple re-reads () it's only sign of age are slight page discolouration and a crinkled spine.

The secrets of my paperback preservation are simple things like using bookmarks, keeping them dry and never ever holding the book so that it's front cover touches it's back cover when reading *shudders*.

I take less care of my comics though, they're bagged but unboarded and currently crammed into a box until I find a better place to store them.

 

I need to take much better care of my books.

I'm currently on my third edition of Magician by Feist due to excessive reading and I'm nearing the point where I'll have to move on to version three of Dune.