Any tips for cleaning books?

Submitted by Brazilian-Capybara t3_z8p0px in books

So it's been years since I had new books, and I recently started reading again. Before, I used to only read at home, but now I take the books everywhere in my backpack and I realized the outside of their pages get a little dirty. I know, as long as the book is not falling apart and you can read it, it's fine, but I also want the book to look good.

I've seen some people saying that white erasers and rubbing alchohol (the one we use on our hands) is good for it, but I'm scared of causing damage to the pages. Does anyone know how to help?

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Old_Bandicoot_1014 t1_iycjesg wrote

I used to work in a second hand bookshop. We used to use fine sandpaper 🤷‍♀️

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Brazilian-Capybara OP t1_iycjgwt wrote

I've heard about this too. Does any type of sandpaper works?

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BuffaloInCahoots t1_iycu5f0 wrote

Randomly came across this post and I know nothing about cleaning books. I do know about sandpaper though. Try a sanding sponge, they come in different grits but I’d try something over 100. The more the grit number the smoother the sandpaper. So 30 grit will tear some stuff up and 2000 grit will polish things.

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A_Clockwork_Sausage t1_iydm3z8 wrote

I used to work in a bookshop and we used eucalyptus oil to clean covers. Works a charm unless the cover is uncoated (for example most matte finishes).

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JeebusFright t1_iyddmmx wrote

Can't you put into a zip lock or something?

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Welfycat t1_iydzlkr wrote

All I read was the title and I came in to see if Marie Kondo’s The Art of Cleaning Up had been recommended yet. Upon seeing the other suggests I realized it wasn’t that type of book cleaning. Unfortunately I don’t have any suggestions for you. The only type of book cleaning I’ve done is to zip lock a smelly book in the freezer with baking soda.

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