Review: DIY Bookbinding

DIY Bookbinding
Bind your own book by hand
By Brian Sawyer

is a short (32 pages) article that teaches you how to bind your own books. Whether you find the idea of binding your own books exciting, or you just want a way to preserve your magazines or other printed material, DIY Bookbinding is a book for you.

Brian Sawyer takes you step-by-step through the bookbinding process, from pulling the pages out of a perfect bound book, all the way up through putting in the endsheets. If you're interested in binding your own books, this book has some great information.

The Good
High quality photos and step-by-step instructions make this guide an excellent how-to. The amount of literature available on the internet dealing with book binding is somewhat limited, so the concentrated information here is quite welcome.

The Bad
I wished this article had more illustrations to accompany or replace some of the photographs. The important aspects of the photos ended out obscuring some of the more important details. Of course that means that there are reference images, so that's a good thing.

The Bottom Line
If you're interested in book binding, whether as a hobby, or just to preserve your magazines or other papers, you should buy this book. With the information in this guide, you can easily make back the $5 cover price, or make presents (journals, personalized books, etc.) of a high enough quality that will make this a good buy.