cover image The Booklover's Repair Kit: First Aid for Home Libraries

The Booklover's Repair Kit: First Aid for Home Libraries

Estelle Ellis, Wilton Wiggins, Douglas Lee. Knopf Publishing Group, $125 (112pp) ISBN 978-0-375-41119-9

Despite advances in book technologyDfor instance, the advent of acid-free paperDbound books do deteriorate. Over the centuries, bookbinders and book conservationists have devised intelligent ways to deal with the effects of light, moisture, oils (from probing fingers), gravity and other natural and unnatural (think children's crayon marks) assaults on the human species' primary repository of knowledge. Wiggins and Lee are veteran practitioners of the craft of repairing and preserving books, and here they work with Ellis (At Home with Books) to bring these techniques into the home. Their ""repair kit"" includes a hardbound instruction book, The Booklover's Repair Manual, which deals with the damage books receive in the home, with clear, step-by step, illustrated instructions on how to handle, among other problems, page tears, damaged dust jackets, frayed cover edges and recent minor water damage. (The authors advise that badly stained books, or leatherbound collectibles, be taken to a specialist; and they include a list of these.) The kit, packaged in a box that resembles an oversize hardcover, contains much more than the book, however. It holds all the non-household tools one needs to undertake the covered repairs, including, among other items, pH-neutral adhesive, cotton library tape, a microspatula and a bamboo brush. With its high sticker price, this item clearly is aimed at serious bibliophiles or those who love them, and just as clearly it will make a splendidDand usefulDgift for anyone who treasures the books in their life. (Nov. 7)