Q&A for How to Keep Books in Good Condition

You should hold the book carefully to prevent a bent spine. If it is already bent, then there is nothing you can do. Bending it in different ways to make the spine retain its normal condition may make it worse.

Yes, it will help protect the cover from minor marks and very small spills, but it won't protect the pages.

You can keep them there temporarily, as long as the conditions of the bag aren't damp, but if you want to keep them in good condition, I wouldn't recommend storing them like this for an extended period of time.

Clear plastic adjustable book jackets that fit over the hardcover dust jacket are preferred.

You can keep them there temporarily, as long as the conditions of the bag aren't damp, but if you want to keep them in good condition, I wouldn't recommend storing them like this for an extended period of time.

Use a slip of paper or a normal bookmark to prevent creasing. Be careful when turning pages so as to not rip them, and do not eat or drink anything while reading the book. Try to handle it with care, and don't let little ones touch it.

Use a hair straightener on low heat and carefully go over any imperfections. Make sure you don't have the heat too high, as this will discolor the book.

Not if the temperature is below 75 degrees Fahrenheit (23 C) and it's dry air that's being circulated. Libraries and archives keep their collections in air-conditioned rooms.

Nothing can be done to fix the stained pages. But the stained covers can be polished using Colin or any liquid almirah polisher, or maybe a hand sanitizer, and then warming by keeping the books in sunlight for about half an hour.

There's no spray for this. You need to find some way to correct the humidity where you keep your books - this can be fairly expensive to do correctly (cheap humidifiers go too far in the other direction). It's hard to say what exactly you need to do without more information about the environment you're keeping the books in. It would be a good idea to speak with a professional who conserves books.

That depends on where you are. If you have very dry winters, or very humid summers, this is a bad idea. If you're lucky enough to live in a place where it's temperate year-round and humidity doesn't get above 65%, it'll be fine (as long as you can keep pests away).

It is possible, but not recommended to do at home yourself. A professional bookbinder should be able to split apart a book.

Just keeping it on a bookshelf will be fine, unless your house is very humid (in which case a baggie or box wouldn't help anyway). Many libraries have books from the 1910s and even earlier out on the shelves with no trouble.

That's just a superstition. The only thing that matters is whether or not you read them.

Open the book very carefully and gently every time. And don't press down on the book when it's open.