(Untitled)

[opheliasavalon]

I have been shaking for over an hour. In a matter of minutes I have lost over 40 French books to mold. My entire collection, except 2 books on different shelves and one I lent to my sister a while back. Gone. Many old and out of print. Gone

Comments

[panthyr]

Oh sweetie, I'm sorry. Losing valued books is horrible.

[lady_librarian]

If you'll send me a list of the books, I'll see what I can find on this end.

[asland32]

That is so horrible. I'm so sorry.
However, if they don't have metal bindings you may be able to save a few. I've had luck with killing/removing mold from books by sticking them in a microwave briefly, like 35 seconds, brushing them delicately and then repeating. It is a time consuming process and only works with small amounts of mold, but it might help save a few.
*hugs*

[opheliasavalon]

Hmm...I dont have a microwave but perhaps someone might let me borrow one. Good suggestion.

[randomdream]

You are welcome to borrow mine if you want to give it a try.

[m_cobweb]

:-( I've got several friends in Seattle who've had mold problems like that, but unfortunately we've learned to kind of expect that here. I wouldn't have thought it was much of a risk in Austin. Booo.

[neohippie]

How do you think it got there? You've got to have some kind of moisture leak somewhere.

That really sucks. I had a similar problem at my apartment on Manor Road when the air conditioner started leaking water into my closet. Not quite as disasterous as this, but I lost a whole box of family photos that were sitting on the shelf over my clothes (which were all soaked, of course).

Try looking up ways to clean books. So many people are into rare books and restoring them that I'm sure they've figured out ways to repair them, at least the ones that aren't too badly damaged.

[opheliasavalon]

We're the last apartment in the building and the bookshelf leans against the outside wall. So there's probably some crack in the foundation or brick or something thats letting moisture in. We rearranged the living room 2 months ago and before that we didnt keep anything against that wall, so who knows how long its been an issue.