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They just don't make 'em like they used to.
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Bird, you may laugh-- oh, go ahead-- but I have several sets of books that I often read in the bath (so far, I have yet to fall asleep mid-bath and drop the book into the water. So far.) Anyway, I started covering certain books with clear contact paper. Now, it gives my husband the willies ("You've ruined it!" --was I ever planning on selling it? Ever?) ...anyway...
Of course, I don't do that to the ones that I "collect". And for the most part, I've switched to covering the books with paper and then covering the paper with the clear contact paper. That way, I can have some fun online looking for the Perfect Cover for my book (sometimes it's a scanned replica of the original cover, sometimes it's an alternate cover printed right off of Amazon or an art site, or... you get the idea.)
My two "workhorse" copies of LOTR are the Ringwraith-omnibus paperback and then the Gandalf-omnibus paperback that followed it. (Walmart, twelve bucks.. who could resist? And I landed in Seattle, very first trip, with no LOTR-- can't have that.) Both those now have clear contact paper over them (Ruined! Ruined!-- so I bought them
again, one each, to add to the collection... I've gone over the edge...) Anyway, those are the copies that I take on travel, read in the tub, whatever.
So the moral of the story (there has to be one) is that thirty years from now, you can look me up on The Really Decayed And Decrepit Barrow-Downers Club list and ask me, Say, Helen, how are those two Contact-paper omnibus LOTR copies holding up? And I can tell you how they are (Mint, New, VyGd, Gd, Fair, Poor) and then you can decide whether you think clear contact paper is a good potential protective layer over your own working copies.
See? It's important for old friends to keep in touch.
[ March 04, 2003: Message edited by: mark12_30 ]