#books 2020

[yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere]

i love Airman my entire life ah♥

Books Read in 2020 → Airman by Eoin Colfer

“No more than ten minutes old and through some trick of the light or photographic mishap, it seemed as though Conor’s eyes were focused. Impossible of course. But imagine if somehow they had been, then Conor’s first sight would have been a cloudless French sky flashing by. Little wonder he became what he became.”

[laurenillustrated]

handsome, clever, and rich.

Emma Woodhouse poster design for fun! Based on the 2020 film.

[gameraboy2]

Absolute Wonder Woman #1 (2024) Cover by Dan Panosian

[dogzcats]

EMMA. (2020): from book to screen

[go-see-a-starwar]

Absolutely ready for the Haydenaissance let’s do this

[browsethestacks]

Comic - Mad Magazine 2024 FCBD Special Edition (2024)

Art by Kerry Callen

[aethersea]

I've always wanted to learn bookbinding, ever since I was a wee little nerd, but there are a lot of things I've always wanted to learn, and this one has both a daunting upfront materials cost and a daunting upfront research cost. however, my sister is a jewel among siblings and gave me for christmas last year a handy dandy bookbinding manual, a block of good paper, and a little bag of tools.

but I still didn't have a suitable workspace, nor any of the many important tools and materials that she didn't include in her gift. so I just read the manual and pined. until maybe a month ago I got fed up with pining, flattened a cardboard box for a cutting mat, and went to town.

and I'm real proud of myself, so here's me rambling, plus photos!

I went to the thrift store and got glue + some fabric to bind the cover, went to Michaels for a paintbrush (and later went back for a metal ruler lmao it's amazing how useful it is to have a straightedge for cutting the paper), and...could not find material for the cover boards. so I went home and pined some more. but the urges were too strong, so after a couple hours of moping I got a stack of printer paper at the grocery store (I could not bring myself to use the good paper for my first, inevitably weak attempts, I just couldn't do it) and started making a little booklet. which was a great idea, it turned out, since it makes for good practice with cutting the paper, measuring things, punching holes in the signatures, etc.

I have a big box of greeting cards from Michaels, which I used for the covers. it didn't feel like I was making a Real Book, so I got some colored paper from the stationery store and used that for end papers.

so fancy~

galvanized by this success, I ordered a stack of chipboard online to use for cover boards; and once I was confident that I could cut paper without making it look too stupid (getting that straightedge ruler sure helped lol), I made signatures out of the good paper, left them under some heavy books overnight since I don't have a book press, and then punched holes in them! (huzzah for this nice video on getting the holes right)

my sister's gift included good linen thread. it's unwaxed, but after some poking around on r/bookbinding it looks like that just means I'll have to be more careful to avoid tangles and keep good tension. I am fine with this. I can be extra attentive. (I considered just running it over a beeswax candle, but one commenter said if your wax has paraffin in it, it could melt in a hot car, ruining the spine. I can't guarantee my candle is 100% beeswax, I didn't make it, so maybe we just move on.)

I don't have good linen fabric to use for the tapes, but the important part there is that the fabric be thin, sturdy, and not stretchy. the probably-cotton I got from the thrift store fits the bill, so it'll do!

this is a french link stitch, which I got from this exceedingly good tutorial. apparently it's strong enough on its own that for a book of this size, I don't actually need tapes, but I'd already cut the things so eh here we are. and tapes plus french link will make it a stronger binding still (according to a friendly redditor on r/bookbinding), so we carry on.

specifically we carry on to the gluing step. now as I mentioned, I do not have a book press, and you....kinda need one for this step. you need to hold the book block in place with the signatures facing upwards, pressed together hard enough that the glue won't run down between them and stick the pages together (though you do want the glue to get between them just a little, just for like a 16th of an inch). you at least need some clamps and a couple boards to sandwich the book block with.

but you know what? I'm not a professional, this is my first ever book, if it's a little bit off it'll be fine. so we grab all the heaviest books off the bookshelf and improvise.

it's fine! I'm sure it's fine! and just in case it's not, I've tucked a bit of cardboard underneath to catch any glue that drips down so it won't land on the floor. see? I'm prepared! I'm acing this.

and actually, it really was fine. I used clear elmer's glue, applied with a flat paintbrush from the art supplies aisle at Michael's, and frankly I liked the way the flat paintbrush let me slip glue in between the signatures. I did poke around on a couple bookbinding sites to see what kind of glue I should use, and the gist is that although there are better options than this, elmer's glue is perfectly serviceable, and the main downside is it's not archival grade. but I don't need my first bookbinding attempts to last 200 years, that's fine.

the next step is to add the mull. mull is a specific type of fabric – extremely loose-weave linen – and the idea is to paste it down over the spine to essentially hold the tapes and signatures all in place in relation to each other.

but I don't have mull! so I'm using more of the thrift store probably-cotton, because it's thin enough and not really stretchy at all. I'm sure this will be fine too. I painted a layer of glue onto the spine, then left it to dry a bit while I measured and cut the fabric, then painted a generous stripe of glue down the center, where it'll affix onto the spine. then I added a bit more glue to the spine, just to be sure, and pressed the mull into place, rubbing it thoroughly to make sure it's firmly affixed to every signature, with no creases in the fabric or air bubbles beneath it.

honestly I might have overdone it on the glue. I've never done this before, I don't know! I think it's okay, though – I tried not to ever let it become a thick layer, just a slight coating, since the danger of too much glue is that it might crack once dry and weaken the spine.

and now we leave it in the press overnight to dry, and pick up the next step in the morning!

[sonofcelluloid]

Lesmand snubbers I honestly pity you you are missing out on one of the richest most complex iwtv relationships which relies on some of the show’s heaviest themes of cyclical trauma and deep understanding, loving someone so much you can’t even bear to look at them because you empathize with all their worst parts and they do the same with yours. And if you don’t think the show is setting up the most devastating tvl collision between these two in season 3 honey you’ve got a big storm coming. Y’all think they’re bad on their own wait till you see them together. Toxic yaoi has never been more back. Love them so bad.

[macrolit]

According to the New York Times, these are the best fiction books of the 2020s. Do you agree? What's missing?

[owlsie-hoot]

05.05 Pair Bond

[tilbageidanmark]

Simone Biles flip book, from “The Flippist”.

(This is post No. 4,300).

[garadinervi]

Gianpaolo Pagni, LETTURE STENOGRAFICHE, (rubber stamps on printed material (Stenografia oggi, Casa editrice Poseidonia, Prima edizione 1980)), 2024 [© Gianpaolo Pagni]

[vertigoartgore]

Jubilee (and what's left of a defeated sentinel) commission by artist Ben Harvey (2024).

[gameraboy2]

GI Joe #1 (2024) Cover by Ben Harvey

[escapismsworld]

Period films and series 🤎🪞

[clarkgriffon]

REVISITING PRIDE & PREJUDICE: PART TWO ↠ The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (2012-2013)