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My partner and I have been moving house recently, and in all the action of packing, some cooking oil has spilled over a few of the books.

The books are irreplaceable, they are not made of any special materials, so standard paper and bindings so no fabric covers.

I have tried using washing up liquid in solution in small quantities to rub on the books, and left to dry for a day in the sun. This worked on the hard covers but still there is moist oil residue.

Is there anything else I can do to help recover some of the damage to the oil stains on the pages and soft covers?

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    Honestly, unless these are priceless relics, your best bet is just to throw them away. It will be impossible to remove the oil without use of specialist solvents, IMO.
    – SiHa
    Commented Jul 21, 2020 at 20:01
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    Apologies, I read "not replaceable" as "not irreplaceable"! in other words, read your question as "I'd rather not throw these away because I prefer to not throw things away". The only option you have, I believe, is to find a solvent which will dissolve the oil and not the ink, which will not wrinkle the paper. According to Google, Acetone is good at dissolving oil and readily available. In my experience though, it's not actually very volatile, so drying would be slow. Hexane is another possible.
    – SiHa
    Commented Jul 21, 2020 at 20:16
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    Eek! I wouldn’t do anything water based, because that will make the fibers swell and warp. The only thing I can think is use a volatile solvent like paint thinner (not the eco stuff, the nasty stuff) that is a solvent for the oil (i.e. that the oil will freely dissolve in). Get the oil to dissolve into it and be carried away, and what remains is thinner; that evaporates wholly. Of course if the ink is also soluble in thinner, that could be a problem. Might need to go on a chemical hunt to find the “won’t dissolve ink, is solvent for oil”.
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Jul 21, 2020 at 20:26
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    Perhaps you might consult a book restoration specialist in your area.
    – jwh20
    Commented Jul 21, 2020 at 22:04
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    I would most definitely use the internet to find a book restoration person/company as @jwh20 suggested. They'll know what to use as opposed to the (mostly) educated guesses you'll get here.
    – FreeMan
    Commented Jul 21, 2020 at 22:46

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