HOW TO TREAT THE BOOKS YOU READ

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 34, 3 November 1937, Page 12

HOW TO TREAT THE BOOKS YOU READ

G. K. Chesterton onco obstived that "either you know how to look after books, or you don't" ; but there is no reason why everyone should not belong to the former class. Whether a hook is your own or borrowed from a friend, it will pay you to treat it as fragile material. Publishers make bindings as solid and endur ■ ing as they can, but iio volume cnn survive rf it is left on chairs and lounges to be sat on. In handling a book, don't try to make the covers meet each other in your efforts to make the pages lie Uat. Such a bending jnevitably cracks the glue and stretcaes or breaks the threads formiug the iinding, .(LTso holh hands when reading./ Rid yourself of the liabit of dog-ear-ing ; that is, tiiming down the corrier

of a leaf to mark your place. Sooncr or later the little triangles of paper will fc'all off. Bookmarks are cheap, and a slip of paper is adequate at a pinch. ' Don't constantly flick through the pages if you want the edges to stay clean; and if you are really conscienbious you will keep a few different-sized broWn-paper covers to slip over books while you are reading them. Some booklovers make covers of cellopliane for tlieir volumes before piltting them away, but this will probably be beyond the zeal of most people. Store your books, preferably in a bookcase with glass doors. Every two or three months remove the volumes and give them a thorough dusting and airing. This keeps them white and banishes musty odours, besides denying silverflsh and other paper-eating insects a chancp to settle down.