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Kind of a weird request. How can you hold a book open for a long time without damaging it?

DarthCaligulaDarthCaligula Elite Ranger
in General Discussion
I think I've mentioned this before, but in my spare time for the last couple years I've been translating to the best of my ability some Japanese light novels (basically young adult) called Boogiepop. Four of these books were translated a while back (wow, looking at it, those translated books were released ten years ago. Of course, I only got into it a few years later, after the fourth book had been released and they gave up on the series being brought outside of Japan, since it didn't sell well) and I absolutely loved them. Hell, I actually consider the second and third books in the series as one of my favorite stories, even if it is a bit amateurish.
Anyway, I got through one of them, 321 pages, with I'd say about 20 of those pages being illustrations, and now I'm a little over 2/3 of the way through another one, this one only being 302 pages, again including about 17 or so pages of illustrations. Anyway, the problem is that I hold the book open with one hand while I mostly use the other hand to write in my notebook and look through my Kanji guide book. So the thing is, holding these books open for hours upon hours obviously wears them out, and I'm the sort of person who likes to take care of my things.
So like I said, this is kind of a weird request, but do any of you have any idea how I can have these books held open without damaging them, for when I move onto another one? I'm wondering if there's some sort of device, something that I could put the book in to keep it held open, so then my palm sweat and such won't damage the book.

Comments

  • WashWash
    Mostly it's the binding you have to worry about. Holding them open for a while should be okay, as long as the paper isn't too cheap.
  • DarthCaligulaDarthCaligula Elite Ranger
    edited January 2016
    Well, actually, the binding isn't my problem. For the current book, the first couple pages have gotten a little loose, but the real issue is the bottom of the front pages, where the moisture from my palm sweat has gotten rid of the color, and also, the moisture even bleed through the cover and taken the color from some of the first page and put it on the inside of the cover. I damaged the dust cover of the first book I finished (though the one I'm working on was actually my first attempt. I got about 30 or so pages in and switched to the other one because from what I could tell of the illustrations and skimming the book, some characters I really liked that hadn't really shown up since the first book reappeared in that book, so I was really interested to see what happened to them), so I eventually learned to just take it off. During my entire second attempt at the current book, I've had the cover off so it can stay in good condition. I'm planning on eventually buying new copies of those two again so I can have pristine copies of them. I actually bought all but three of the books in Japanese, including the ones I have in English, and those ones I'm missing are only missing because they're out of print it turns out.
    The paper seems to be good quality, so that's not really a problem. Really, it's about how my sweat damages them, and bleeds out the color in the opening illustrations especially. Though my hand also wears away at the bottom of the book and both the front and back covers.

    Edit: What a stupid typo.... "Skimming" through the book, not "skipping".....
  • WashWash
    In that case, yes, get a stand. A cookbook stand should work.
  • DarthCaligulaDarthCaligula Elite Ranger
    Oh cool, something like what I need already exists. I was wondering if I'd have to make something. Thanks!
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