No matter who you are, what you do, or what you’re into, one thing is true for basically everyone: we’ve all got our favorite books. Comic books, lengthy novels, something with space and robots in it...whatever your tastes, the odds are good that you’ve amassed something of a collection of beloved books in your travels, and you probably need a place to keep them! Of course, bookcases and bookshelves are the way to go, but it isn’t as simple as just putting a shelf up and forgetting all about it! If you’re serious about keeping your books safely tucked away, here’s a few things to keep in mind before you embark on your organization: Prepare Your Books Taking precautions and preparing your books properly is a great way to prevent damage and keep away pests, especially if it isn’t a book you plan on taking out that often. When cleaning an old book, the important thing to remember is not to introduce any dampness or moisture, as that’s a good way to attract mold and bugs. Speaking of bugs, don’t ever use any bug spray on your books, as bug spray will never play well with paper. Actually, this brings us to... Check For Unwanted Visitors Nobody needs bugs or mice in their home, but they especially don’t need them where their books live. Whatever room you set your bookshelves up in, give it a good look around to make sure there’s no way mice or bugs can get to your books - there’s few things they love more than a nice, dark place full of thin paper for them to chew up and nest in. Dust Jackets On, Inserts And Bookmarks Off The only ‘extra’ you should keep with your books when they’re being shelved is the dust jacket, if it came with one. Otherwise, try to take out any bookmarks, notes, or inserts the book came with and store them separately, preferably in an acid-free envelope so you can use them again later. Don’t Stack Too Deep If you’re using wall-mounted bookshelves and have to stack your books atop one another, you can avoid damage to the spine and binding by using kind of a pyramid shape to stack them - take the largest books (not the thickest) and put them on the bottom, building up from there. And try to avoid putting too many books in the same stack so the ones on bottom don’t get warped from supporting too much weight. Keep Them Dusted Finally, once everything is safely on its shelf, make sure to treat your books to a regular cleaning every now and again. Use a dry paintbrush and/or a chemical free duster and try to always dust towards the spine to avoid tearing the jacket flaps or corners. And if all of this sounds a little much, or impractical with your living situation, just remember this: give them a nice shady spot without too much humidity or warmth, and they’ll get by just fine.