My old copy of Moby-Dick finally gave up after 20 years

The spine split clean in half last month, so I decided to rebind it myself with some goat skin from a shop in Seattle. After three days of work, the book feels solid again and the leather has a nice patina starting. Has anyone else fixed a book they've had since college?

2 comments

2 Comments

mason3611mo ago

Goat skin from Seattle is a great choice, but that patina you see after just three days is probably just the oils from your hands. A real patina takes years of light and air to develop on leather. Still, it sounds like a solid repair job.

the_james1mo ago

Reminds me of a buddy who tried to fix his falling-apart copy of "The Sun Also Rises" with duct tape and a prayer. It held for about a week before the pages just slid out in a block. He ended up getting some proper bookbinding cloth online, and @mason361 is right about the patina thing, it still looks brand new on his shelf years later.