A couple of weekends ago I ventured into a “Rare Book Store” in Marblehead.  The weather was hot and oppressively humid.  I heard either a fan or air conditioner running in the store, but could not for the life of me find relief in this store.  The lack of air circulation, combined with the heat motivated me to make my selections, if any, quickly.

Located in the basement of the store was where the owner elected to store the “occult” selections.  My quest for finding literary treasures in this section knows no bounds.

As I descended the wooden stairs an overpowering musty odor ran up the stairs to knock me over like a neglected Great Dane.  That sick moldy smell ran over my senses and set my eyes to watering.  The darkness of the underbelly of the store was too much of an aphrodisiac; pulling up my shirt collar to cover my mouth and nose I proceeded to explore the cavernous rows of books.

I found an excellent copy of Witches by Erica Jong and Human Energy Systems by Jack Schwarz.   Feeling extraordinarily fortunate at my finds, I paid for them, and walked quickly outside welcoming the seacoast air to breathe.

When I arrived home I pulled them out of the paper bag and sat down to enjoy reading my books, then it hit me.  The mustiness was overpowering and my throat started to close as I began to cough from the mold.

There are so many suggestions as to how to remove mustiness and mold from books, and researching this subject led me to all sorts of urban myths.

Do not microwave your books to kill mold spores!  You will end up with burnt spines, and damaged paper.  Don’t try to lightly rub the pages of your books with white vinegar either – you’ll only regret it.  After all, we are NOT professional book restorers are we?

I bought a tub of green solid glop that guaranteed to take the mustiness out of books.  I placed my books inside a bag, took off the cover to the green glop container, placed it on top of the books, sealed the bag and left it alone for four days.  After four days the books significantly smelled less offensive, reminiscent of when you kiss someone who smokes, there was a discernible lingering….a questionable unpleasant odor.   Not unlike the scent of a laboratory frog steeped in formaldehyde.

So what’s the solution?  You can’t in good judgement just pass on an old book because it smells like a water-logged basement!  I trolled around the Internet, and this guy’s advice makes sense to me:

If the book is quite damp, you could try this procedure to help dry it out.  Get some calcium chloride from a hardware store or farm supply outlet (it’s that stuff that’s used in place of salt for de-icing walks and driveways).   Bake about a cup of it at 250 Fahrenheit in your oven for 1 hour.  Now place this in a sealed container (like an ice cream pail) along with, but not touching the book.  Leave for 2 or 3 days.

Once you have the book completely dry, you should try to get the book clean.  Roll Absorene over the entire exterior of the boards, the inside of the dust jacket, and both front and back endpapers.  Often the coated stock of illustrations in the book will grow mold as well, so make sure to clean those as well.

For mild odour, try standing the book up with pages fanned open in front of a small fan.  Spray plain Lysol from behind the fan so that the spray is scattered into the pages.  Again, this one is not for valuable books.

So thank you fellow bibliophile; I am eternally grateful.

Tags: bibliophile, Erica Jong, Great Dane, Jack Schwarz, Lysol, Marblehead, musty old books, rare book store, removing odour from old books, sick mold