Taking bibliophilia to the next level

I’ve signed up for a bookbinding course. It has always saddened me to see books that are in bad condition, bindings falling apart and covers falling off, and I have some at home that I want to repair. Having a book rebound is expensive – in fact it often costs more than buying a new copy, and I expect that by repairing about 6 books I will have recouped the cost of the course. Plus, my grandmother has stopped her bookbinding activities and has promised to give me all her equipment once I have done the course, so I will not need to buy equipment. She has everything but a guillotine (book-cutter) and letter stamps, but I will only need those if I need to put new covers on a book or make a book from scratch.

I am supposed to bring some bound books to experiment on, scissors, a sharp pocket knife and a darning needle.
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Now, if someone can explain to me why comments that are posted to my Blogger blogs have suddenly stopped getting e-mailed to me? I still have the e-mail option on, but I only get an e-mail after I have approved the comment.

Comments

jenclair said…

Trying going to Settings, then to Comments, then scroll down to Comment Notification Address. See if your email address is listed. That is all I can think of...

January 24, 2007 3:42 pm

El Gaviero said…

bjossi her.... i write in english as it is easier... my sister is the nordic studies libarian at the university of washington and i think that you might have some things in common.

January 26, 2007 3:23 pm

Anonymous said…

You review nailed this on the head. To wit: The book was irritating, but one couldn't stop reading!

January 31, 2007 11:18 pm

Book 7: Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuściński (reading notes)

-This reads like fiction - prose more beautiful than one has come to expect from non-fiction and many of the chapters are structured like fiction stories. There is little continuity between most of the chapters, although some of the narratives or stories spread over more than one chapter. This is therefore more a collection of short narratives than a cohesive entirety. You could pick it up and read the chapters at random and still get a good sense of what is going on. -Here is an author who is not trying to find himself, recover from a broken heart, set a record, visit 30 countries in 3 weeks or build a perfectly enviable home in a perfectly enviable location, which is a rarity within travel literature, but of course Kapuściński was in Africa to work, and not to travel for spiritual, mental or entertainment purposes (he was the Polish Press Agency's Africa correspondent for nearly 30 years). -I have no way of knowing how well Kapuściński knew Africa - I have never been there...

How to make a simple origami bookmark

Here are some instructions on how to make a simple origami (paper folding) bookmark: Take a square of paper. It can be patterned origami paper, gift paper or even office paper, just as long as it’s easy to fold. The square should not be much bigger than 10 cm/4 inches across, unless you intend to use the mark for a big book. The images show what the paper should look like after you follow each step of the instructions. The two sides of the paper are shown in different colours to make things easier, and the edges and fold lines are shown as black lines. Fold the paper in half diagonally (corner to corner), and then unfold. Repeat with the other two corners. This is to find the middle and to make the rest of the folding easier. If the paper is thick or stiff it can help to reverse the folds. Fold three of the corners in so that they meet in the middle. You now have a piece of paper resembling an open envelope. For the next two steps, ignore the flap. Fold the square diagonally in two. Yo...

Bibliophile discusses Van Dine’s rules for writing detective stories

Writers have been putting down advice for wannabe writers for centuries, about everything from how to captivate readers to how to build a story and write believable characters to getting published. The mystery genre has had its fair share, and one of the best known advisory essays is mystery writer’s S.S. Van Dine’s 1928 piece “Twenty rules for writing detective stories.” I mentioned in one of my reviews that I might write about these rules. Well, I finally gave myself the time to do it. First comes the rule (condensed), then what I think about it. Here are the Rules as Van Dine wrote them . (Incidentally, check out the rest of this excellent mystery reader’s resource: Gaslight ) The rules are meant to apply to whodunnit amateur detective fiction, but the main ones can be applied to police and P.I. fiction as well. I will discuss them mostly in this context, but will also mention genres where the rules don’t apply and authors who have successfully and unsuccessfully broken the rules. 1...

Reading in Reykjavík

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