Every passionate reader loves the sight of countless books nicely stacked in big racks in major book shops or reputed libraries with proper titling or numbering. And in 99.9% cases this vision of books always has them placed vertically with the text at the spine readable with a 90 degree angle tilt.
However you would be surprised to know that though almost every shop or library keeps its books in the more famous vertical style only, it actually is not a perfect or ideal way of keeping them all when it comes to the marginally thick HARDBOUND ones.
Luckily I came to know about this rare fact through a monthly newsletter of ‘Hind Pocket Books’ read in the late 90s. And thought of sharing it today with all my readers here after a recent incident at a friend’s house, who had many big fat LAW books in his personal collection, but all in pretty bad shape with their binding coming out due to a specific reason.
Now getting on to the valuable tip, it more deals with the Hardbound books and not the Paperback editions which we all have in our personal collections in a decent number. So if you take a look at the first picture in the left, it shows a paperback edition with all its pages touching the ground properly which indicates that it can be kept both ways, i.e. vertically as well as horizontally without causing any harm. But when it comes to our Hardbound editions then they do have a visible marginal difference in their page dimensions and the thick outer cover holding the book together. Now if you look at the picture 2 & 3, it clearly shows that when we keep a good fat hardbound book vertically then there always remains a gap between its pages and the base level of our shelves touched by its thick outer sides.
Now this doesn’t cause any damage in the first few months. But as time goes by, not only dust finds its place in this small gap but the bunch of pages also start bending with a tilt towards the base due to their own heavy weight, causing the gum tearing off from the top as highlighted in the picture number 4. In fact, more the thickness of the book more will be the weight of its pages causing the gum tearing off sooner. And that is the reason all the thick hardbound books always have a loose kind of binding after a few years. But on the other side, if we place them all horizontally, then the entire weight of the pages gets evenly balanced and there is no gap causing the gum coming off with time.
Hence it can be easily concluded that where the paperback editions of our valuable collection can be placed in both ways (vertically as well as horizontally), there the thick hardbound editions essentially need to be kept only in horizontal position, in order to give a more longer life to their binding, staying the same for many more years.
Now as I explained the same to my dear friend, the next time I visited his house, he had all his thick Law books lying flat one over the other and he was quite happy saving his true guides taking an extra care of them all, after a long gap.
Having said that, no doubt in a big library, its easier to compile books in the same old vertical form, following the set routine of ages. But adding a new life to the big books placing them all in the other way doesn’t seem to be an inconceivable idea at all, which cannot be incorporated. Interestingly that will also make the titles readable in a much easier manner to a person searching for his one desired book amongst all.
Anyway, leaving the libraries to decide on their own, we can at least begin the same from our own lovable collections at home. And even if it causes a major reshuffle to be done spending a good amount of time and effort, it is certainly going to add a few more years to the life of our beloved books for sure, quite logically.
So in case are now watching many of your thick hardbound books lying vertically in the shelves, then do take out some time and get on to the task of placing them all horizontally at the earliest.
Cheers!
HIS BLESSINGS
(© Bobbytalkscinema.com June 2014)
