Collegiate Times

A personally bound book makes the perfect book.

Correction: This story has been modified from its original version. — This column has been modified from its original publication to change the first line to match the author's original intentions.

When it comes to books, there's nothing that turns me on more than a tight binding and slow fingering.

My youth was filled with such late night fondling, concealed beneath a makeshift tent of comforters and pillows intended to mask my addiction.

Books littered my thoughts, leading me to seek them out, even in most public of places. School libraries, museum gift shops, shopping centers and church pews became my playground.

Size has never mattered. Age was always irrelevant. Personality and content seemed trivial. My only real requirement was aesthetic. My mother warned me of this with a series of talks and slaps on the wrist. Each time I was caught in the act, I was issued a standard, predictable lecture.

“Don’t judge a book by the cover,” she would plead.

But I couldn’t help it. The artist within me repeatedly trumps my literary interest, resulting in a series of ill-advised reads and an exquisitely beautiful, but arguably nonsensical book collection. As my unwavering addiction to book arts perpetuates, I have come to discover a practical outlet for my interest: book making. Originally conceived as a means to clutter my shelves and sprinkle my coffee table with pretty things, it has become a handy hobby for gifts and school projects alike. With school winding down, finals impending and an expensive horde of friends graduating, book making offers a simple solution to final projects and sentimental gifts. Craft original photo albums, recycled journals, impressive presentations or showcase your poetry with one of these three simple methods to impress your teachers and friends.

HAND-SEWN METHOD: The most versatile method to bookbinding, it can be used on longer works because it is all by hand.

How To: Follow the same instructions as the sewing machine method, but instead of using a sewing machine, use a thick needle to poke three holes down the spine of the book. One should be centered and the other two equidistant from the center hole and the edges of the book on each side. Using durable thread or string on a needle, poke through the middle hole from the center of the book, leaving a couple of inches of thread as a tail to be tied. Thread the string through one of the holes on the side, then back through the middle hole and through the other side hole. You are left with both ends of the string in the middle. Tie and trim.

SEWING MACHINE METHOD: The quickest, most durable solution for short books. Most sewing machines handle paper quite well, just make sure that it is not too thick (8 to 10 pages) or you could break the needle.

How To: Cut paper into rectangular pieces twice the width of a page. Fold down the center and stack. The bottom sheet of the stack will be your cover. Sew along the crease. Fold again on the crease using a flat, stiff object to press down cover. Decorate as you desire.

HOT GLUE METHOD: The best method for loose, precut paper that cannot be folded for sewing methods. This method is slightly less reliable, because it is easy to miss a page or a page might come loose.

How To: Cut paper to desired size. Stack. Cut a thick piece of paper into a strip the length of your book and a half an inch wider than the stack. This is your spine. Fold and crease around the stack, leaving a quarter of an inch on each side of the spine. Coat it with hot glue and press it against the stack. Make sure your pages line up to the spine entirely, or they will come loose. Let dry and enjoy.

A version of this article appeared in the Apr 8 issue of the Collegiate Times.