It’s been a hot and humid summer where I live and these two things—heat and moisture—are the enemy of books. If you are a bibliophile like me, you probably have a few special books that you want to keep in good condition because they have sentimental value. There are a few simple steps you can take to protect your paper collectibles—books, comic books, photographs, scrapbooks, sticker collections—and extend their longevity. Here are a few tips I picked up in a Preservation and Conservation course I took in library school.

Heat, Humidity, and Sunlight Are the Enemies
Heat, moisture, and sunlight are some of the most common ways books are damaged in the home. Warm, humid conditions promote mildew growth, while cold, dry conditions make paper brittle. The ideal storage conditions for paper collections are:
At a temperature of 70° F
A relative humidity of 50%
Out of direct sunlight, which can cause fading

Keeping these ideal storage conditions in mind, some of the most common places people store collections in their homes—hot attics, damp basements—are doing a lot of harm. Libraries and archives go to great lengths to monitor and regulate heat and humidity, but, for your average personal collections, these are just things to keep in mind. Is your basement always really damp? Then maybe you should move your books up to the main floor of the house or buy a dehumidifier. Are your bookshelves next to a fireplace or radiator? Probably not a good idea. Does sunlight coming in your windows hit a cherished photograph? Maybe you should have it copied and keep the original in a safer place. These are just some things to think about.

Proper Storage of Books
Besides the heat and humidity guidelines, here are a few more tips for proper storage of most books:

Books should be shelved upright and not allowed to lean (this stresses the binding). If necessary, use bookends to keep books from leaning.

Oversized books that are too large to fit upright on a shelf should be stored flat or spine down. Do not store on the fore-edge as this can cause the book to pull away from the binding.

Any inserts—bookmarks, scraps of paper, paper clips—should be removed from the book to prevent discoloration.

If you have a very valuable or special book—a rare historical book, a delicate scrapbook—you might want to invest in an acid-free archival box for storage. A proper archival storage container should meet these three guidelines:
Acid-free
Alkaline buffered – this prevents the material from becoming acidic over time
Lignin-free – it should contain no lignin, which can become acidic

Photographs
Like I mentioned with books, the best way to store photographs long-term is in a cool, dry, dark place. Albums are a great way to store photos, but you’ve got to make sure you buy the right kind. Here are a few tips:

Avoid albums with plastic PVC overlays. Seriously, these albums will turn yellow and damage your photos. If it has a strong smell, you probably want to avoid it.

Albums should be labeled acid-free and lignin-free

Look for three-hole punch archival plastic pages made of polyester, polypropylene, or polyethylene (these are safe materials).

You can also use an archival box to store photos, just make sure they don’t slide down and get bent.

Comic Books
For comic books, you’ll want to follow all the guidelines I’ve laid out above for heat, humidity, and sunlight. A few more tips:

The plastic sleeves comic books come in aren’t always good for long-term storage. You’ll want to move them to sleeves made of Mylar (polyester), polypropylene, or polyethylene, which are acid free.

Same thing goes for the cardboard backing boards. You’ll want to replace them with acid-free cardboard.

A more affordable solution would be to place your collection in an acid-free archival storage box. Store them upright, as lying flat will cause their spines to roll up.

What To Do If Disaster Strikes
Water damaged books can be saved, but you have to act fast. Mold and mildew can set in after 48 to 72 hours. To dry the wet books you have two options:

Air-drying books
Air-drying water damaged books will lead to slight discoloration and crinkling of pages, but if you have a large number of wet books, it might be your best option. You’ll want to:
Place books on paper towels
Interleaf more paper towels in the pages
Place a fan in the room to circulate air

Freeze-drying books
Freeze-drying books is the best way to minimize damage. There are commercial companies that specialize in salvaging books, but if you have one or two water logged books, you can try drying them in your freezer at home. You want to wrap them loosely in waxed paper to prevent them from sticking to anything, and place in the freezer. And then you have to be patient because it could take MONTHS for the books to dry. Our conservation class actually conducted an experiment where we each dunked a paperback in a bucket of water and then put it into the freezer. I took mine out of the freezer after 1 month and it was still pretty wet. A few of my classmates’ books were dry and looked like new after a month in their freezers, so it must vary from freezer to freezer. I was seriously amazed to see the difference between books that had completely dried in the freezer (and looked darn near pristine) and books that had air-dried (and looked crinkly and bulging).

If you want to learn more about Preservation and Conservation, The American Institute for Conservation maintains an informative resource center. I also highly recommend the Northeast Document Conservation Center‘s resource page for private and family collections.

Follow me on Twitter @kristendaemons

Stieg Larsson, author of the insanely popular Millennium trilogy, is the first author to sell one million Kindle books. According to Amazon, all three of his books—The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest—are among the top ten bestselling Kindle books of all time. Amazon is calling Stieg Larsson the first member of the “Kindle Million Club,” which “recognizes authors whose entire body of work has sold over 1 million copies in the Kindle Store.” This only includes paid Kindle sales, not free downloads.

Hachette recently announced that James Patterson has also sold over one million ebooks—but that was across various retailers, not just in the Kindle store. Last week, Amazon stated that Patterson has sold 867,881 Kindle books, so he will probably be joining the Kindle Million Club very soon. Close behind would be Charlaine Harris, Stephenie Meyer, and Nora Roberts, who have each sold more than 500,000 Kindle books.

This comes on the heels of Amazon’s recent announcement that Kindle books are outselling hardcovers on their website. With increased competition from Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Apple’s iPad, Amazon seems to be emphasizing their dominance in the ebook market.

Follow me on Twitter @kristendaemons

Alyson Noel, author of the bestselling Immortals series, has landed a 7-figure deal to write a new series called Soul Seeker. The deal, with the Griffin imprint of St. Martin’s Press, is for four books. Noel described the new series to The Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog:

It’s a young adult supernatural novel and it’s a completely new world. The Immortals is set in Laguna Beach, California, and this book is going to be set in the Southwest, most likely New Mexico. So it’s going to have a very different atmosphere, landscape and feel, and it’ll explore themes of Shamanism and the ability to walk through the Upperworld and the Underworld and to walk amongst the dead. It’s about a 16-year-old girl who is quite different from Ever, the protagonist in the Immortals series, who starts suffering the symptoms of what appears to be a psychotic break. But her grandmother recognizes it for what it is: her heredity ability—her father had it as well—to walk between the Upperworld and the Underworld.

Alyson Noel’s new Soul Seeker series should be out in 2012. She says on her blog that she must first finish the sixth and final Immortals book, which is due in 2011. She also has Radiance, an Immortals spin-off, coming out on August 31.

Follow me on Twitter @kristendaemons

The Four Fingers of Death book trailer is definitely one of the most interesting book trailers I’ve seen. I’m not quite sure what the heck the book is about, but it seems to involve Mars, flesh-eating bacteria, and chimpanzees. Take a look at the trailer and let me know what you think.

More information about The Four Fingers of Death by Rick Moody (from the publisher):

Montese Crandall is a downtrodden writer whose rare collection of baseball cards won’t sustain him, financially or emotionally, through the grave illness of his wife. Luckily, he swindles himself a job churning out a novelization of the 2025 remake of a 1963 horror classic, “The Crawling Hand.” Crandall tells therein of the United States, in a bid to regain global eminence, launching at last its doomed manned mission to the desolation of Mars. Three space pods with nine Americans on board travel three months, expecting to spend three years as the planet’s first colonists. When a secret mission to retrieve a flesh-eating bacterium for use in bio-warfare is uncovered, mayhem ensues.

Only a lonely human arm (missing its middle finger) returns to earth, crash-landing in the vast Sonoran Desert of Arizona. The arm may hold the secret to reanimation or it may simply be an infectious killing machine. In the ensuing days, it crawls through the heartbroken wasteland of a civilization at its breaking point, economically and culturally–a dystopia of lowlife, emigration from America, and laughable lifestyle alternatives.

The Four Fingers of Death is a stunningly inventive, sometimes hilarious, monumental novel. It will delight admirers of comic masterpieces like Slaughterhouse-Five, The Crying of Lot 49, and Catch-22.

Follow me on Twitter @kristendaemons

Amazon just announced the debut of its third-generation Kindle, which is smaller, faster, lighter, and has a sharper picture than the previous version. The battery life has also been upgraded to one month (with the wireless turned off, 10 days with it on). The Wi-Fi only Kindle is $139 and the 3G version is $189. The new Kindles are available for pre-order now, and will start shipping on August 27.

Here are some more details on the new Kindle features:

All-New, High-Contrast E-Ink Screen – 50% better contrast than any other e-reader

New Sleek Design – 21% smaller body while keeping the same 6″ size reading area

17% Lighter – Only 8.5 ounces, weighs less than a paperback

Battery Life of Up to One Month – A single charge lasts up to one month with wireless off

Double the Storage – Up to 3,500 Books

Built-In Wi-Fi – Shop and download books in less than 60 seconds

20% Faster Page Turns – Seamless reading

Quieter Page Turn Buttons – Quieter page turns means you can read all night without disturbing your partner.

Enhanced PDF Reader – With dictionary lookup, notes, and highlights

Share Meaningful Passages – Share meaningful passages with friends and family with built-in Twitter and Facebook integration.

Personally, I love my Kindle and I’m excited about this news because I think it means the Kindle is about to become more mainstream. My favorite thing about the Kindle is the e-ink screen, which really looks like paper and is very easy on the eyes, so I’m curious to see the new high-contrast version. I also like how the new page turn buttons are smaller (to prevent accidentally turning the page) and now have a reduced lag time.

So what do you think about the Kindle 3? If you don’t have an eReader, are you tempted to buy the new Kindle?

Follow me on Twitter @kristendaemons

Dick Wolf, creator of the long-running TV series Law & Order, has signed a two-book deal with William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins. His first novel is described as a realistic, high-concept thriller about a terrorist attacked planned for New York City on the 4th of July. It will involve a NYPD Detective and the Joint Terrorist Task Force, which seems like familiar territory for the man behind Law & Order. HarperCollins’ press release compares the book to The Day of the Jackal and Three Days of the Condor. Wolf’s book does not yet have a title or a release date.

William Morrow Executive Editor, David Highfill, says, “As he has shown us in the authenticity and freshness of his TV work, Dick Wolf is a master of tightly woven, character-driven American stories that feel like they are happening right in front of you, right now, not last week or last year. He will bring just that sense of heightened immediacy and drama to this new novel.”

Although Law & Order recently wrapped its 20th and final season, Wolf is currently the executive producer of its spinoff, Law & Order: Los Angeles, which is due this fall.

Follow me on Twitter @kristendaemons

At the 2010 San Diego Comic Con, IDW Publishing announced the return of two out of print series. John Byrne’s Next Men will pick up where the series left off in 1995, and will be in stores this December. The Rocketeer is also returning with a four-issue miniseries that will be available in 2011. Here’s what IDW has to say about each project:

John Byrne’s Next Men
Debuting in 1991, Byrne’s Next Men originally ran for thirty issues and a standalone prequel graphic novel, 2112. Next Men developed an all-new world of superheroes grounded in modern reality. The series quickly became one of the most critically acclaimed runs of Byrne’s remarkable career, but ceased publication in 1995 and left fans with a cliffhanger at the end of issue 30. Now, coinciding with the twentieth anniversary of the original first issue, Byrne and IDW invite fans back into the world of the Next Men.

IDW has previously collected the existing Next Men material, in two black and white “Compleat” volumes and oversized Premiere Edition hardcovers, the third volume of which will be available in stores on September 1, 2010.

“When John started working for us three or four years ago, two things happened, and have been happening pretty much every month since then,” said IDW’s CCO/Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall. “I’ve been asking John about doing new Next Men comics, and fans have been e-mailing me demanding that we do new Next Men stories. Happily, after all this time, John is going to quiet us all down and do just that.”

The Rocketeer
IDW Publishing, a premier publisher of graphic novels and books, is pleased to announce today an all-new, four-issue miniseries featuring Dave Stevens’ beloved character, The Rocketeer. Coming in 2011, IDW’s The Rocketeer mini-series will be written and drawn by some of today’s finest comics creators, including Mike Allred, Kurt Busiek, John Cassaday, Darwyn Cooke, Michael Golden, Gene Ha, Michael Kaluta, Garry Leach, Bruce Timm, Bill Willingham, and many more. Alex Ross will supply stunning covers on each issue.

The Rocketeer by Dave Stevens was first published in 1982, and appeared sporadically into the mid 1990s. Despite this infrequent publishing schedule, the series developed an intensely devoted fan-following that treasured each new installment. Tragically, Stevens passed away in 2008 after a lengthy battle with Leukemia. In remembrance of this brilliant artist, a substantial portion of profits earned from this new mini-series will be donated to Hairy Cell Leukemia research by the estate of Dave Stevens, the creators involved, and IDW Publishing.

“Dave Stevens was an incredibly talented artist and a wonderful person,” said IDW Special Projects Editor Scott Dunbier. “I would like to think that he would be happy with a book like this, one that pays such loving tribute to his greatest creation.”

What do you think of IDW’s announcement? Anyone excited for these comics to return?

Follow me on Twitter @kristendaemons

The death of the world’s most successful computer game designer, Matthew Sobol, sets into motion a series of events that has everyone in Silicon Valley on edge. After the bizarre murders of two of Sobol’s co-workers, Detective Pete Sebeck comes to the conclusion that the murderer is Sobol himself via a Daemon, an autonomous computer program. As the Daemon uses the technology we find in our everyday life to implement Sobol’s plans, the authorities feel helpless to stop it. When a raid on Sobol’s house goes disastrously wrong, Detective Sebeck soon finds himself in the Daemon’s crosshairs. How do you stop technology from ruining your life when it’s all around you?

I had originally heard of Daemon on a few tech podcasts which were praising how good the book was and how Suarez bases the Daemon and events in the book on a solid, real world technology. In fact, the story highlights how much technology has permeated every part of our life from work to transportation to entertainment, and the associated dangers. The book also brings in lots of different sub-cultures into the story line, whether it’s online gaming, the rave community or hackers, and these parts are blended in very well to the overall storyline and plot. The book moves along at a good pace, without getting too bogged down in descriptions of technology or inane technobabble. My favorite part of the story was the raid on Sobol’s house, because it brought in some interesting concepts in technology and home security that I had not thought of before. If there is any weakness in the story is near the climax, when they identify Sobol’s accomplices in the Daemon, because it seemed like there wasn’t enough there to tie the accomplices to the Daemon and I don’t think the FBI or police would make that big of a miscalculation.

Daemon is a great book for fans of techno-thrillers or readers who don’t mind their fiction with a lot of technology mixed in. It is age appropriate for older teens and up, as the plot is a little difficult to follow for younger readers and there are one or two graphic moments that may be a little too much. I listened to the audiobook version of Daemon from Audible.com, narrated by Jeff Gurner, which is 15+ hours long but it goes by quickly. Suarez also wrote a follow up to Daemon, called Freedom(TM).

Follow me on Twitter @josedaemons

Amazon.com has sold out of Kindle eReaders, leading to rampant speculation that they are about to release a newer version of the device. Amazon lists the Kindle as “temporarily out of stock,” but doesn’t say when it will once again be available. This situation, coupled with a Bloomberg report that said Amazon plans to release a thinner version of the Kindle in August, points to an updated device being released in the very near future. Bloomberg’s sources say the next Kindle will have a “more responsive screen with a sharper picture,” but “won’t include a touch screen or color.”

Of course, all this is just speculation and the recent price drop to $189 could be to blame for Amazon selling all the Kindles they had in stock. Last week, Amazon reported that Kindle sales had tripled after they slashed the price. So did this sales jump take Amazon by surprise and they ran out of stock? Or were they intentionally clearing out stock to make room for new Kindles? We should find out soon.

Follow me on Twitter @kristendaemons

Janet Evanovich has left her longtime publisher, St. Martin’s Press, and moved to Ballantine Bantam Dell, an imprint of Random House. Deadline.com is reporting that the move comes after Evanovich and her agent/son Peter failed to get $50 million from St. Martin’s for her next four books. There’s no word on how much Random House paid for the four-book deal, which includes two Stephanie Plum novels and two more books in the “Unmentionable” series (a paranormal spinoff of the Plum series that launches in September).

According to the AP, Evanovich says, “I started my career as a Bantam author, and I’m very excited to be returning,” Evanovich, 67, said in a statement. “Their sales, distribution, and marketing make them the perfect partner for me and my work. Load up the U-Haul; break out the pizza and the beer — it’s moving day.”

The movie version of Evanovich’s first book, One For the Money, is currently filming now. It stars Katherine Heigl as Jersey girl bounty hunter Stephanie Plum.

Follow me on Twitter @kristendaemons