cleaning a book

note: this is also in the lit club group.

anyway -

got a book back from a friend and well, it appears to have had a few misadventures. quite frankly, it's picked up a bit of a funky odor. it's not terrible and not worth ditching the book over (especially since i have it all marked up already).. but i was wondering if anyone knows any way to "air out" a book, or to otherwise minimize the smells this thing is giving off?

thanks!

Soak it in bleach. It'll be fine.

Sometimes, you just have to let things like this go.

How to remove "musty" smells from books

Talas's Odor Eliminator

I've never tried either the method presented above, nor the Odor Eliminator, which is available through Talas (but also many other places).

If you're feeling really industrious, you could try calling your local used book store and seeing whether they have any special tricks to solve your problem. They receive tons of smelly basement and attic books, so I'll bet they might have some good ideas.

Unless the book is rare or collectible or of sentimental value, I would just obtain a copy in better condition, especially if the odor is strong. And the odor eliminator methods seem somewhat time- and energy-consuming.

Good luck, though.

[Edited on Jun 03, 2005 by isabel]

Tell him to drink pineapple juice before he reads it next time.

Aww, I mean, it's one thing if it just stinks, but I *love* the "musty book" smell.

Febbreeze (or however the hell it's spelled)

Hooray for musty book smell. How else do you know that you're reading?

You totally just ruined my Hustler collection.

Get an attorney.

[Edited on Jun 03, 2005 by RyanDipietro]

I can only guess..
Put it in some sort of container with baking soda for a while? Same kind of thing as getting food smells out of your fridge.

I'll clean YOUR book.

That book has character.