A bit of a bind...

Well, the beautiful book I ordered for the old Dad’s 100th birthday on 27th has fallen apart before he’s even seen it. Six pages have dropped out altogether and the back of the book is completely broken somewhere near the middle.
They are sending me a replacement which is very decent but it is a disappointment that such a classy and historically significant book should be at risk. The binding is a common machine type and works well enough with most paperbacks but hard glossy pages like the ones in this book do not accept a quick squish with hot latex glue very willingly.
They tell me no one else has complained about it but they weren’t to know I am an expert in hand-made “perfect” bindings. So when the first sheet came loose bells rang for me, and it was no surprise when it was followed by eight or ten others before I'd done more than browse the book.

Putting on my amateur bookbinder hat I have taken off the cover – easy, it wasn’t well glued either – and guillotined the entire binding off the sheets and am glueing it all up again. Just to see if my process will hold on this sort of paper.

My system is described in a little book I published a few years ago and while it was never properly marketed I have licensed about 260 people to use it for personal or business purposes. Some of them have sent me the books that they’ve done. It’s been one of the most satisfying aspects of my publishing hobby to get letters from people who have got their own books into print with their own resources.

See Bind Your Own Books here