I Like Books

I threw away a book once, and I've felt guilty about it ever since. It's not just that I like to read books; I like the idea of them, and I like the way they look. I like the aesthetics of books: Cover designs, dust jackets, paper stock. My favorite thing to see in a home is a bookshelf so crammed with books, it's unthinkable that it's maintained any sort of ordering convention.

For these reasons, I have a healthy appreciation for art journals, decorative book binding, and altered books, as the book has become almost more art than literature. (recycle the link a few times for a few different pictures.) The latter I think is a perfectly wonderful solution for those books you'd like to throw away, but simply don't have the stomach to do.

I've had one book sitting on my shelf for a few years that I didn't know what to do with. I picked it up from a discount pile for $1, an while it wasn't atrocious literature, I don't really have a fondness for it, and didn't know what I should do with it. I finally decided to just deconstruct it and make myself a nice little art journal, and that's exactly what I did this past weekend.

The original book (the dustjacket is lovely)


The new cover, created over the original cover board. (The title is to remind myself that entries are solely for practice, much like a sketch book, and not to become discouraged if things don't turn out as I'd like.)


Exposed spine bound with a decorative stitch. (Coptic Stitch) I folded the original pages in half to create new pages for the journal.


The binding style allows the book to lie completely flat while open, so it's good for journals. I glued the original dust cover to the interior.