Attractive but unwanteds on the shelf? Let them earn their keep, propping up the rest.

Rare Book Hub:

What do you do with those old books no one wants that are taking up space on your shelves or in your attic? Here is a use for a few of them, for which we are indebted to the Toronto Star. It won't help much if you have a lot of them, but still we need to recognize a clever use for a few.

The idea is to take a couple of old books and make them into bookends. My immediate reaction was that if books were steady enough to be bookends, why would you need bookends in the first place? What gives? Here is the trick. All it takes is a pair of simple metal bookends and a lot of glue. Make sure you have a glue that will adhere to metal. The Star recommends a glue gun.

First, apply some glue to the inside covers. Then seal them to the inside pages. You may want to add some more glue to various inside pages throughout so they are less likely to separate. Don't plan on reading this book again...