Bookmaking: Apparently No Magic or Unicorn Thread

I’m just amazed at how the previously mysterious world of bookbinding has peeled open to me over the past 24 hours.  If you’d asked me last week how books were held together I probably would have suggested that it was a combination of magic, spelt and unicorn mane-thread; to have learned that it’s really just glue (at least for perfect-bound books) was a huge revelation. So today I’ve been stealing away into the letterpress shop between conference calls and programming jobs to make tiny sample books. Here’s one I made using the powerful “shoots through up to 25 pages!” stapler that Johnny got me for my birthday, with a card-stock cover glued on.

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Chuck's picture
Chuck on April 10, 2011 - 01:51 Permalink

I know how that feels. I had a roommate who worked in a printer’s shop for 12 years. When he first showed me how a perfect-bound book was made, I thought “You’re kidding!” I couldn’t believe it was that easy.