How do I keep books with a cracked spine from worsening?

JoshTeeters — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 18:11:04 -0800

I have quite a few books that I bought used that have cracked spines. They're not to the point where I need to rebind them, but I'd like to do everything I can do to keep them from reaching that point. Suggestions? Most of the books in question are softbacks, and are glue-bound. Besides being careful when using them (most of them are reference books, like foreign language stuff), is there anything I can do to prevent them from getting worse? Would putting a thin line of glue down into the crack (no sexual jokes, please ;) help matters, or would that be pointless? Taping the outside of the spine? Doing a book dance around the damaged books while praying to LibraryThing?

These aren't ultra-rare books or anything, but some of them were a real pain in the ass to get (been out of print for a while), so I'd really like to preseve them as best as I can.

Skaters Sneakers

gentle — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 12:56:08 -0800

ShoeFilter? Six months ago, I bought a new pair of Skaters sneakers. Recently they started to make a weird "clack" sound while I was walking, and I discovered that protuding from a small hole in each sole, close to the heel, is a solid-looking metal strip, about 1cm wide and 1mm thick, looking as though it's been slowly grinding its way out. What are the strips for? Is it really necessary to reinforce the rubber with metal?

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How do I keep books with a cracked spine from worsening?

Skaters Sneakers