one of the little skills i've begun to learn over the past few years is how to repair books. i don't mean the kind of heavyduty book restoration you see done by professionals. i mean fixing your beloved thrashed paperback that you just can't bear to toss out, because who even does that

today i wanted to (finally) read Myst: The Book of Atrus, and when i opened it up a hunk of chapters completely separated from the adjoining pages. this is probably why i got it for $2 at a thrift store years ago.

book restoration is an art, and i'm a programmer. so this is how i do it.

pic 1: the damaged section. you can see where a hunk of pages has separated from the neighbouring section. there are even little wisps of paper left.

pic 2: i glue down the little torn wisps of paper using my trusty swiss army knife of tools: a dental flosser. it has the most useful tip for almost any job. i'm using it as a poker and paintbrush today. i've put a tiny dab of PVA glue on the tip, and i've glued the tiny wisps of paper to the page

pic 3: i've applied a conservative amount of PVA glue to the broken section. it's going to bond against the spine, and when smushed, will also bond against the adjoining pages.

pic 4: resting the book on the spine for an hour or two to ensure a good bond, and let the glue dry a bit. that's the ph-neutral Polyvinyl Acetate (PVA) glue i use. it is the most useful glue in my house.

if this will be your first time fixing a page that has fallen out of a book, or fixing a spine like this one: a tiny amount of PVA goes a LONG way. it tends to get runny, so give the bottle a good shake before you start. it also dries a lot faster than the usual white schoolroom glue.

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