My husband and I both prefer to leave matches in the books...even if some of the matches have been used.

If I were you (about 30 full books), I'd leave the matches in the book, and would store them in a tin or a glass jar.

Another alternative (which makes me cringe on a feature matchbook...but isn't as horrific on a non-feature book) is to cut off the match heads. I think decapitating the matches is only slightly better than removing them entirely .

Whichever way you decide to go...have fun with it!

"To shuck or not to shuck" the matches is sort of like "to clean or not to clean" chips. I think it's Gene who doesn't clean his chips, saying he can always clean them later...but once cleaned, there's no way to return them to their "historical" state.