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Someone I know lost his books to water, they were in the basement and a storm occured at night, next morning he found the basement completely flooded. The books were in boxes since he just moved to that place, but that didn't help much, he found them extremely damaged. Is there anyway to restore them.

For water-logged books, the best option is to place absorbent paper between the wet pages - "inter-leaving" - and lay the books flat to dry. You don't have to place blotter paper between every page, just every 20-50 pages or so. Change the blotting paper every few hours.

Taken from this article.

I'm not sure how well it works for soaked books, but my mother, who was a dealer, used cat litter for damp books.

Put the books and litter in a plastic bag and the litter will absorb the moisture.

Good luck to your friend.

Apearently he ran out of luck. He said he couldn't reach but after 48 hours of the event. Many of the books were completely lost, which was sad since they weren't just a group of books but many and have been with him for a long time and contained some rare books and other that wee commented on by famous scholars.
Check this link to have a look at the boxes:
http://www.alwaraq.net/photo_popup.htm? ... 001407.jpg

Edit: I foget to say "Thanks for your coopration"

"Ya welly!"

You reminded of this poet who said this in his poem:
"Wa wal-walat wa wal-walat
Waly Waly ya waylali"

I'm not sure how well it works for soaked books, but my mother, who was a dealer, used cat litter for damp books.

Put the books and litter in a plastic bag and the litter will absorb the moisture.

Good luck to your friend.

just a note on this note for future ref- in dealing with my own uninvited water issues I found out the hard way that cat litter may be scented -and then you have a sickly chemical odor to get rid of