I’ve rarely had problems buying used, second-hand books, but I did have a “bad” experience recently. I bought a second-hand book on eBay. When I received it, it wasn’t the traces of glue on the cover that I first noticed, but the foul smell of cold tobacco on the pages. Another time, I bought a whole manga collection but the books were clearly kept in a humid place, as they got pink-ish stains and wavy pages.

So I set out to find out how I could clean these second-hand books so that I wouldn’t have to throw them away, and I could read them without the yucky feeling of dirty pages or the horrible smell of tobacco or damp cave.

In this article, I explain how to remove bad smells, clean book covers, and “disinfect” them, without harmful products.

Removing a musty, damp or tobacco smell from a second-hand book

Tip tested and approved on my book with the unbearable smell of old tobacco:

• Place the book in a box (ideally one that allows it to stand upright, so the pages are a bit apart from each other) in which you’ve put baking soda.
• You can mix a little essential oil with the bicarbonate to impregnate the pages with its scent (which is what I did), but just a drop so as not to dampen the bicarbonate.
• I placed a small cloth under the book to prevent it from ending up with lots of grains between the pages.
• Leave the box closed for 3 days.

If not totally satisfied, try to repeat it two or three times.

Result: no more bad smells, the pages now smell of lavender (it will eventually not smell anything at all).

If the smell persisted, you may need to put some bicarbonate between all the pages, directly on the paper: use this as a last resort, as you’ll then need to take the time to remove the grains (the biggest will go away when you shake the book by the edge, but you’ll probably need to wipe the pages individually to remove the remaining grains, or they will disappear by themselves when you read the book).

How to avoid humidity stains and bad odors on books

To avoid the above mentioned problems:

• Let your books breath! Don’t push them against the back of your bookshelf, but leave at least enough space to be able to pass your hand behind your books. Ideally, also don’t fill in the full shelf, but let a few empty spaces. This all allows air to flow.
• Make sure the room where your bookshelf is has a good humidity level and open windows often enough. This is not only good for books but for everything actually, including inhabitants and keeping a good temperature in the house (air with a lot of humidity is more difficult to heat).
• Don’t store books in cardboard boxes for a long time, as humidity might go in but will slowly evaporate, thus reaching the books.
• If you must store your books in a plastic box, make sure they are really dry before closing the lid.
• Don’t keep books next to a place with strong odors or a lot of steam (kitchen, bathroom…).
• Don’t smoke in the room where you keep your book, and ideally not at all inside your house.

Traces of glue on a book cover

To remove glue, there’s nothing like oil. So I put a little vegetable oil on a cloth and rubbed where there were traces of glue. You can add a little bicarbonate of soda to make a little scrub (go easy and gradually so as not to damage the cover). Of course, use a very small dose, as the aim is not to leave greasy stains on the book’s pages!

“Disinfecting” the cover of a second-hand book

If you’re afraid of bacteria or the like, there’s nothing like good old-fashioned household white vinegar. Again, use sparingly to avoid blunders. Take a small cloth, soak it in vinegar (personally, I have a vinegar spray I use to clean my glasses and other small screens, so I use that to avoid soaking the cloth too much) and rub the blanket with it for a little clean. A drop of essential oil in the vinegar will give the book a natural, pleasant scent.

If you’re really afraid of bacteria, you can clean the pages with bicarbonate of soda (leave for a day or two), but then you’ll have a lot of fun getting it all off…

It’s worth noting, however, that most of the time, books are just a little dusty, and a wipe with a cloth can solve the problem!