Bookbinding Basics

by Paola Rosati

“This beautifully illustrated and detailed guide... has several practice projects for learning the techniques of classical bookbinding...illustrated step by step in close-up photographs. A good guide for anyone wanting professional quality results, this book belongs in public library or academic arts and crafts collections.”— Library Journal.

Genres: Crafts, Nonfiction, Journaling

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2001

Reviews

[Ellie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good photos, but not particularly helpful. Text formatting is off-putting, and descriptions are lacking key details. Although this book is called Bookbinding Basics, I don't think it's beginner-friendly.

[Juten Mehra · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit complicated tools used not sure it’s for me to use. Looking for simpler method.

[Robert Poortinga · Rating 3 out of 5]

good, detailed but for my taste slightly on the simplistic side. But for a beginner binder etc very informative and approachable! definitely worth the read for people interested in binding.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information, rough translation, helpful pictures.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably not the best book to start with. Illustrations are not as good as they could be, and the descriptions of materials are not as comprehensive or useful as I feel they would be in a really good volume. There are no indentations or paragraph breaks in the full-text sections, and in places the translation seems odd. There are also places where you are told that you should do something, but not why.

Also, if you are looking for information about repairing books, this might be an okay source for general background, but there is nothing specific about book repair. There is a good if brief discussion of the history of bookbinding.

[Cas D. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great photos, but few close ups of the steps being described. The author also assumes that you know the name of each piece (fly leaf, signature, etc) without explaining the difference. Perhaps a book better suited for someone with a basic idea of book binding already.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was beautiful as a picture book, but pretty useless for informative purposes.

[Gigi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic styles.