Deluoode's very own /lit/

[rancher]

This will be a "Future Gadget Laboratory" thread soon but: anyone here have experience with bookbinding?

I'm intending to feed Epub/HTML books into LaTeX via pandoc. Use bookbinder.js to generate "signatures". Print and bind books -- lots of folding and sewing. I spent about $250 between a Brother laserjet printer, extra ink, paper, bonefolder, awl, needles, threads, ruler, guillotine. I'm not jumping in 100% yet so -- I have yet to order proper book boards, book cloth, cheesecloth -- initial books will be coptic bound with covers made from repurposed cardboards and cloths.

Some of the big appeal of making books at home for me, aside from it being "relatively" cheap to make books and the artistic/crafting angle, is (a) being able to produce a library of books with consistent size, style, fonts, etc; and (b) being able to split larger books into smaller volumes.

I hate it so much when I have to read a book more than 300 pages long! I own some religious texts that are well beyond 1000 pages in length and it is very unpleasant to actually read them.

ex: Lord of the Rings is much more pleasant to read through in a 7 volume set, but these are rare. Wouldn't you rather have these if you could, though?

[RadioHades]

That's some massive quality autismo! Love it.

[rancher]

Tried coptic binding today now that my tools and printer have all arrived.

~300 page book broken into 5 sheet / 20 page signatures. (PALE FIRE)

The thing I didn't really expect with Coptic binding is how much a pain in the ass stitching the final cover to the book is. Stitching is strong enough, and the book can open flat while reading. I used a high quality PDF with a laser printer and it looks amazing inside. Used a potato camera but take my word for it.

"Case binding" (making a hardback with stitching, glue) feels a lot less intimidating now.

Due to this being my first time stitching books in a very, very long time, it took about 3 hours to complete from printing to end result. Stitching books is pretty mindless and repetitive -- background music really helped!

[rancher]

Just because this thread's a bit slow I'll show off my first "case bound" book: the Naked Lunch; it's a classic book that no one knows about here in Indonesia. I wonder why: it's a great book that everyone should read, full of valuable moral lessons!



~5MB video file showing it off. Low quality PDF and the binding isn't perfect, but I had fun doing it. Took under an hour to print and stitch the text together, under an hour to wrap cardboard with fabric and glue it to the text.

I used an Indonesian fabric style, Batik. It looks quite premium to me but was purchased very cheaply, and by the meter. The book feels good in the hands and the stitching/gluing is good-enough. If only I had properly typeset it by converting an Epub to LaTeX to PDF this would almost be the top-shelf book of my dreams. (Maybe adding a ribbon bookmark also.)

Last book-making tool is one of those fancy guillotine cutters to deal with excessive margins .... anyway..... that's what I was doing today.

Shout out to Burroughs; read Nova Express and Cities of the Red Night to understand what all the fuss is about.

Now that I've made a few books here's my thought on the hobby: aside from the initial investment price of getting a decent laser printer and paying for toner refills, everything is either cheap (paper, thread, fabric, cardboard, blue) or cheap and lasts "forever" (sewing needle, bone folder, metal ruler, cutting board, paintbrushes).

All of my books are A5 size (folded A4 paper) so calculating costs is pretty easy.

• A ream of A4 paper or 2000 book pages is about $3; pretending a book is 200 pages, that's $0.30 of paper a book.
• The toner for my printer is $25 for 2600 pages, or 5,200 book pages. which should be about $0.96 of ink per 200 page book.
• Cardboard, fabric, thread, and glue are cheap enough that I'm not paying attention to their costs...

... but it all factors in as under $2 to make a nice hardbound book.

So if you like books and crafting, may be a good hobby for you.

[NonoEnjoyer]

One of YOU PEOPLE asked me to post here regarding Crime and Punishment. I don't have anything to say that hasn't been said before, to be certain, but I do have some thoughts as unoriginal as they may be.

I don't really have trouble with names, even foreign ones, but I admit I did get mixed up a few times in reading. Raskolnikov stands out pretty well, but I remember the drunk fellow from the bar's daughter came up later and I confused her with the woman that Raskolnikov's sister had worked for.

I have a lot of appreciation for the "strange" style C&P is written in. There might be a term for it, but the way it's almost like he's forgetting details and stuff as the narrative progresses. Very interesting and as someone who's not very well read (in regards to classics and "Good" literature) I haven't seen much like it.

I was warned about the long rant from the drunk man at the bar (i have forgotten the names of most people by now but I would know if I saw them) by a friend, but that didn't bother me too much. The letter from mother, however... that was quite drawn out.

If you'll excuse the cringe references (this is deluoode, the science adventure forum), part 1 and what I've read of part 2 had me thinking about chaos;head pretty frequently. The obvious comparison is between Raskolnikov and Takumi, but I was also thinking about the way that St. Petersburg is described vs the appearance of Shibuya and its populace in C;H. The sort of in-between bad 3D and 2D art of Chaos;Head really makes the setting feel dirty and uncomfortable, and Dostoyevsky's rather visceral descriptions of the worst parts of the capital of the Russian Empire are no different. Everyone's greasy and ragged, it smells like shit, there are vagrants and lunatics everywhere (what's new?). Makes everything for Raskolnikov seem that much more unpleasant.

Raskolnikov's frequent bouts of delirum and mood swings make for such an interesting read of a paranoid and troubled character. Even before he axes the pawn broker (and her poor sister) he's jumping at shadows all the time. The narrative writing style really helps convey this. A small moment that stuck out to me as very believable is the one where he can't decide whether or not to put his nasty, blood-stained sock back on or not. Exactly the kind of stupid shit I would be worried about if I had just hacked two hapless women to death.

And I find the religious aspects and references very interesting. Dostoyevsky and I share a common faith. While Raskolnikov doesn't seem to be a particularly faithful man himself (and other characters with their ill-conceived notions about salvation re: the pawn broker), there's no contempt for God itself in the narrative. This is something I tire of in modern media in general, not just as a Christian myself but as a predictable element of narratives. Not EVERY religious institution ever was evil, you know?

Somehow I can't imagine things will turn out well for Raskolnikov. We'll see what happens, I reserve my reading (of C&P at least) for working hours when I don't have shit to do and can focus on the text.