Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Want to know how books used to be made?

Like most of us here on Type M, visitors and bloggers alike, I love books. Yeah, reading e-books has its place in our lives, mostly when travelling, but nothing can beat holding a beautiful tome in your hand, comfy chair underneath you, and maybe a beverage of choice at your side. Heaven…

When my wife and I were much younger, we bought a set of leather-bound books from Franklin Library. Each volume was a collection of short stories by one of the world’s great authors. Every month a new one came (all were bound and typeset differently) and they remain absolutely lovely to read (especially on a night when you can’t sleep and one short story will get you back into sleep mode). They have pride of place in our living room and have proven to be a wise investment – assuming we could ever give them up. It really stretched our meagre budget at the time we purchased them, but the amount ($35) now, seems ludicrously inexpensive.

In bopping around Facebook a couple of weeks ago, I found the video below. It shows exactly how a leather-bound book was made, going right back to setting the type. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I found it utterly fascinating. It’s also nice to know that the art hasn’t been lost. Yeah, I can just imagine how much something like this would cost, but to me it would be worth it for a very special book.

So here is the art of making a book:


The art of making a book! VISIT ► www.innamag.com
Posted by Inna Official on Monday, March 2, 2015

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can you imagine doing this today? I just patted my computer and said, "Good girl."

Rick Blechta said...

Well, yes, Catherine, it is a very time-consuming and complicated way to make a book. However, what you would have at the end would be a very special piece of art (probably quite expensive, too) and that's worth something. I'd love to have all my publications done up this way to leave to future generations of my family. Just one copy each, mind you!

;)