Dear Donia,
How can I remove mold and mildew from book pages using alcohol?
Q. Dear Donia,
A. Dear Abbe,
I am sorry to hear that you have mold on your books. The first thing you want to do is to wrap each book in waxed paper, tape it shut, label it, and put it in the freezer to kill any active mold. Once frozen and allowed to thaw, while working outside put on nitrile gloves and N100 masks (you can find both at places like Home Depot or Lowe's) and unwrap one book at a time. Keeping the wind at your back, gently wipe each book down with a dry cleaning sponge using very light pressure. Paper that has gotten moldy or mildewed can be very fragile.
Once you have cleaned covers and pages, keeping the mask and gloves on and with the wind at your back you can mist with your basic ethanol found at the hardware store (also sold as denatured alcohol). However, before you do this, get a little alcohol on a swab and test every color that you see on covers, endsheets, and pages to make sure that none of it will bleed. If you don't want to use the alcohol, the mold should remain dormant if the books are kept in a dry location with relative humidity below 60%.
Be very careful with your health in working with mold and alcohol as both can be detrimental to your health.
Good luck!