Years ago, I thought cleaning and maintaining books were easy. I thought wiping them and dust them daily will clean and somehow never catches any mold, mildew, and/or worse, bugs. But that's only a half story from essential maintenance and preserving books.

These days I got the chance to deal with old books. Last week, I just picked up some of the books from my grandpa's collection. Since he passed away, nobody cleans and maintains the books. He has extensive Time-Life Publication collections that would be wasteful if that amount of knowledge is forgotten and eventually gone.

So, since nobody in the family likes books as much as I do, I decided to take them and give them a home in the future. Thus far, I only take not even 1% from the whole collection. The book's condition is extremely shabby, and bringing them has been taking a bit off my health as I have allergies.

I did not know how to properly handle them as I was never trained to care for old books. I only ever deal with the tech side of them. After some research, I realized that I am dealing with possibly health-threatening situations. I read from Bookriot on how to clean books, and I can spot a few that might get me sick, especially the bugs and the dust mites.

Now I learned that before cleaning them, I'd need:

• Fine brush
• Gloves
• Denatured alcohol
• Tweezers
• Dry wipe
• Fan
• Long and wide table

Biblio has some good tips on cleaning the mold and mildew, something I am currently dealing with in these old books. It has extensive information about mold and mildew that you can use when dealing with old books.

Identify, Prevent, and Remove Mold and Mildew from BooksBook Collecting Guide

That information was such life-saving. At the moment, I am only stacking the books and keeping them from being too humid. I can't wait for these books to be readable and shiny once again. I love to read old books, and now I understand how difficult it is to maintain them.

Also, I only pick the collections that I think worth saving and are a high priority. I like to read about nutrition, history, the universe. So, those are the books that I currently save. In the future, I'd take more world war 1&2 collections as I will bring a huge storage instead of a small bag that could only fit less than 3 of those books.

At the moment, here is the illustration of the problem that I have with these books. These books were bought by my grandfather around 1989. So, these books are 20+ years old and are older than me. However, the content of the books is still pretty much relevant and quite interesting.

Even after opening them, I got a bit dizzy as I didn't wear mask. I couldn't really touch them for more than 10 minutes without mask. I decided to call it quit and get back when I gathered all the tools I need to clean these books.

Let me know if you have any experience and tips on old book restoration.