Working with Simon Goode, bookbinder, we discussed the anatomy of a book. He can pick up any book and analyse its structure… not the inside but the outside, the very skeleton. Leafing through a copy of Fire and Knives, the food quarterly, the teen remarked how it was hard to open. Simon instantly diagnosed the problem; the grain of the paper was in the wrong direction. “Printers often try to save money this way”, he explained. I duly forwarded this information to the editor and I note that this latest edition of Fire and Knives is easier to flick through.
It’s true I read less books than before. The internet has lured me away from paper. But reading from a backlit screen is never as pleasurable or, as comprehensible, as ink on paper. The rustle, the grain of paper, the smell, the scribbled notes in the margin, the spine and binding, end papers and font, all add to a book’s allure.
This Saturday, Simon will be teaching a select group how to make a book. This will be followed by:
Inkheart: bookbinding dinner
“Some books should be tasted
some devoured,
but only a few
should be chewed and digested thoroughly.”
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (2003)
An edible Table of Contents:
Preface:
Alphabetti spaghetti soup
Foreword:
Rice paper rolls
Chapters:
Paper wrapped tofu
Illlustrations:
Feuilles de chene salad
Glossary:
Squid ink pasta with courgette quills
Book jacket potato
Index:
Pastry pages
Author: MsMarmitelover
Tickets are available here. £85 for workshop and dinner. Starts at 4pm.
I love the idea of this; and totally agree with you: there's a really sensual and primeval pleasure that I take out of checking the binding on a book, even to this day. *blush* I even sniff them. I think you can have a relationship with a book which simply doesn't exist with a computer screen; it's more than just the printed word on the page.
aah, tools i have sitting in a cupboard. i'd love to make a book again -i find the process is extremely therapeutic. hope the workshop goes well and the menu looks fabulous!