The Book Bindery

by Sarah Royal

Serving as a guided tour of a Chicago book bindery, this zine from Sarah Royal details her time spent some working there. From the get-go, she dispels any illusions of book-making fantasy and presents her work and coworkers unflinchingly. It's funny—especially in the snippets of dialog—and full of beautiful photos of the bindery.

Genres: Nonfiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Smiley III · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe I never wrote a review of this book -- it's one of my favorite, favorite books in the world, right up there with the CrimethInc. Evasion book by Anonymous and Leslie Stella's Fat Bald Jeff from Lumpen Press and Pagan Kennedy's The Exes from her zine days, as being an exemplary model of the form, of what independent press can do. Like Leslie Stella, I both had a real job in Chicago and liked it (read: "satisfying" #shelleyfriedMUST*DIE*-- 😉 #yeah-- ), and could afford to take a step back and look at the foibles of coping one has to go through, and admit to oneself and others ... maybe it's the city? The stuffed pizza and bratwurst, the Harold's Chicken Shack? The Second City nature of the place, which means "like Avis, we try harder" (I just saw Coppola's The Conversation again, and he puts a reference to that in there, and, amazingly, I got it -- I was born in "72! 😉 #yeah-- ).

This is one of my favorite favorite books. It's an example of the form. It just goes to show. The xerox-y, punk-flyer pictures fit so well with the material, in a way that's hard to do -- they're usually extraneous, or merely decorative. Here, it fits with the material -- one may think of David Gilmour saying he preferred Wish You Were Here to Dark Side of the Moon because "the material suited what we were setting out to do" better (or whatever he said -- form meeting content 😉 #yeah-- ) -- and it makes you feel like you're at work. Strangely. If you ever liked your job ...

I'd imagine Studs Terkel would like this book -- another Chicagoan. You can think of his quote on the back cover of Jeff Kelly's ("Keffo") Temp Slave compilation.

Why don't people make more stories about work? I took David Foster Wallace's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men to work (since I wasn't going to take the Big One, or "Girl with Curious Hair," which I read in the Voices of the Xiled collection, to the office book club #jendontknowSHIT-- 😉 ), and the people there just looked at me funny. The Christian, 23-year-old married copy editor who goes Church picnics with her husband read it straight through and it's just dross! They told me, politely, "Uh, we won't be reading that one ... " -- which is when you know you're in trouble! I got fired, later; copy-editors are a dime a dozen, and this was explained to me in so many words ("at-will employment" was explained to me by the Attorney Editor who was my boss' boss, who didn't want to do the deed herself -- it's distasteful -- and it's when they can fire you for absolutely no reason, because it's still their right to employ, and it's not discriminatory, and it's not part of a specified-contract amount of time -- sheesh! ☹️).

But this book's good.

You can even carry it in your pocket -- really!

#yeah-- 😉

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent fun...

[Nathaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny and sad, touching and sarcastic, deep and entertaining- The Book Bindery is currently my favorite zine. I laughed out loud more often reading this little book than I have at anything in a long time.

Sarah Royal's retelling of her time spent working in (you guessed it!) a book bindery is well written and fun to read. The cast of characters, absurd plots, rumours, little mysteries, and strange internal logic of the place would be familiar to anyone who's done menial work- yet the way Royal tells it is uniquely colorful, and ultimately joyful. The best moments I had reading the story was when I was laughing with her co-workers, not at their expense. It's a very loving memorial to a pretty insane place.

I'd highly recommend this to anyone, and I look forward to reading the rest of Royal's work. Even if you have to hunt to find a copy of this, it's well worth it. It'll even teach you a thing or two about binding books.

[Peter Derk · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know how sometimes you'll read a great book and then it's hard to get into anything else? You read the words, and the next book might be alright, but you're still waiting for that great, tragic character from the last book to show up?

I think this tiny book is an awesome post-excellent read.

Not that this book isn't also excellent. But it's a small, contained world, and it's divided into these small chapters so you can take breaks along the way. Everything is so vivid that you don't have to worry about pining for the guys from the last book. The writing is strong enough that you won't keep hearing the last writer in your head.

It's a dubious recommendation, but trust me, it works.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very funny and well-written zine (or chapbook if you want to call it that) about Sarah's time at an old school printing company in one of Chicago's trashiest parts. Fun stuff, and even informative at times (about printing!).

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely worth a read if you like dysfunctional work-family type stories from a punkette's perspective. This talks about the bindery's procedures/jobs a little, but mainly it is about ridiculous people.

[Craven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet little zine about labor. It's well worth your time. I'm glad that Microcosm is branching out into stuff like this. Sarah goes into a shitty job at a bookbindery in a new town Chicago and tells us the tale. Then she quits. What is she doing now? That's what I want to know.

[Ryan White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and genuinely hilarious. I loved these stories.