This really sucks, though for once that's good.

"Super Slurper, a starch-based polymer with a powerful thirst, has been employed in diapers and filters, but researchers want to turn the page and develop a different application: drying waterlogged books.
It may look like a nondescript powder, but a mere teaspoon of the stuff can absorb a gallon of water, sucking up over 2,000 times its weight in water instantaneously"
link