Saving water damaged books.

[Calluna]

DS left about 6 of his nicest books on the windowsill in the rain. They arent soaked but all of them have at least a small amount of water damage. I have put paper towel between the pages of the smaller ones but a few of them have quite a lot of pages - one has more than 100.

Is there any way to save them without using 5 rolls of paper towel and 3 hours of my time? Or is this what my night has become?

Why is it always the good stuff that gets ruined. *sigh*

[Eenee]

Hair dryer?
And unfortunately the pages will dry crinkly but you could try ironing them.

[Calluna]

Ah. I dont have one lol
Poo.
Yeah not much I can do about the crinkled pages. I'll settle for not stuck together.

EDIT: Ive put paper towel between all the pages in the pther books but there isnt enough time, energy or paper towel for the 100+ page book. Luckily the water damage is only around the edges. Just have to hope theu dont stick too badly. :/

Im so sad. Hate it when books are mistreated.

[AnyDream]

The trick is to squash them flat as hard as you can. It squeezes the water out & the pages dry flatter. Libraries use presses for this, so if you have anything like a press or clamps in your shed, get them under that. And if you can't press them straight away (because you don't have enough clamps to do them all at once) then freeze them straight away. It stops the mould from growing & gives you a chance to deal with one or two books at a time.

[Eenee]

I hate books getting wrecked too, but my kids are hopeless...cos you know apparently you are supposed to eat and chew books...gah!

[Calluna]

Thanks MD! Ill see what I can find!

[me4ever]

I work in a library and any water damaged books are just stood up, with book open, so air can get in between pages and dry it that way. (Is it clear what I mean??)
I can imagine if you put paper towel in between pages and close the book you might end up with a book that can't be opened as it's made the pages and paper stick together?

[Calluna]

Dunno. Guess we'll find out in the morning. Its just what I remember mum doing.

[raffy]

I had a water bottle spill in a bag full of the kids books... Twice! I just separated every page and left it open to dry out, the pages are cringly but they are now dry and readable