This book looks cool. The raw binder board cover, bright yellow book cloth cover and brilliant red printing attracted my eyes to it on the dreary and woefully inadequate craft shelf at my local Border’s Book Store. Opening the book is no different, each page is wonderfully laid out and eye catching.
The imagery in this book is fantastic. There are many pictures and ideas given throughout. The photography is clear and crisp. The diagrams are good but occasionally the patterning used to color them distracts from the ease of readability.
There are 7 chapters each exploring a different type of book making. These styles are folding books from single sheets of paper, accordion, stab bound, pamphlets, "mutant" books, long stitch and coptic stitch. The set up is from easiest to difficult in styles and thus is a good set up for the beginning binder.
I really want to gush about this book and tell you how good it is, but I just can’t. It would be a good book if you were just starting out in binding, but honestly there are too many good book binding books out there with better diagrams and different and more interesting bindings. There are some fantastic photos of books. Additionally the raw binder board of the cover is easily damaged; in a bag anything rubbing against it leaves a mark or gouge and the corners are easily bent, so the good looking cover doesn’t stay looking good for long.
I give it 3 of 5 binder’s needles and only one paint covered thumbs up.