Adventures in Bookbinding

Earlier this year I uprooted myself from my home of nearly 30 years, Connecticut, and moved across the country to take a new job in California. The move itself was fairly painless but as I began to settle in, I realized how unfamiliar everything here was. My life in Connecticut inspired so many parts of my first book and as I was working on the second one, I fell the well of ideas starting to dry up. I needed some kind of inspiration again.

So like I’ve done many times in my life, I turned to one of my favorite books, the Atlas Obscura - a tome featuring the most weird and unique places around the world. In searching for cool new places to help inspire my writing, I saw a place that instantly caught my attention, The San Fransisco Center for the Book. As a writer, anything writing or book-related tends to catch my attention and after exploring their website for a few minutes I found they offered a whole series of classes about bookbinding which I promptly signed up for.

   

When I first started my self-publishing journey I had to learn a LOT about how books were printed in order to format all the materials for my first book. But these classes were a step back to the basics, not focusing on publishing books, but focusing on the artistry of creating books with a range of historical to more contemporary techniques. Each class I walked away having learned new binding techniques, book terminology, and even some fun history about bookbinding techniques.

   

My original intent while looking through the Atlas Obscura was to find some inspiration for my stories, but with these classes I found a new kind of inspiration instead. I found myself inspired to want to create my own book from scratch, a custom edition of the Wardenclyffe Series made by hand. Now, while I am currently nowhere near being ready to make something like that, I hope that if I continue learning more about bookbinding techniques, I’ll someday be able to make the book that I’m envisioning in my mind.