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Part 3: Projects to Make
Hardcover Books
Project Idea #1 - Repurposing an Old Book
Step 1: Choosing a book to repurpose
This can be any book as long as it has a hard cover, and preferably ½” to 2” spine.
Have a look around your house and see if you have something on hand. It can be an old diary, planner, notebook, address book, a gardening book, cookbook, or as I’m going to use in this project, it can be a hardcover novel.
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Basically, it can be anything that you have in your possession that you no longer need, want, or use. I don’t advocate destroying perfectly good books that still have value. This is not what we are about.
The book that I am using for this project is an outdated, water-damaged book that was discarded by my local library. I have also used my own personal books which were cracked or in some other way damaged, meaning I could no longer donate them.
If you don’t have anything on hand already, a good place to find books to repurpose is second hand shops. It is important to mention here that you check the books for any signs of mold, as you don’t want to work with that or bring it into your home.
Step 2: Removing the text block
Once you have chosen your book, the next step is removing all the inner pages, ie the text block.
This can be done in two ways, depending on the book that you have chosen to use and how the text block was adhered to the spine. You will be able to see this when you look at the very top of the spine, where the book pages meet the spine. If the pages are glued directly onto the spine, then you need to remove the pages by ripping them out carefully one by one or a few at a time.
However, most hardcover books have a gap between the text block and the spine. This gap is called ‘the tube’. It is much easier to remove the text block from books that have the tube. Open up the book to the very first page and sit the book up so that you can see the top of the spine. You will see a small space between the spine and the text block, where that first page was glued onto the cover. This is where you cut using an Exacto knife, box cutter or scissors, and you cut all the way down until the text block is no longer attached to the cover.
