Little Book of Book Making: Timeless Techniques and Fresh Ideas for Beautiful Handmade Books Hardcover – August 12, 2014

it shows you lots of examples of books made by a wide variety of book artists and it lets them talk a bit about why they made it or what they think is special about the book or what they were thinking etc. in their own words. Does it give you step by step instructions how to make all the great books it shows? NO!! and I am delighted that it doesn't. It does give examples and nice clear directions for some sample book shapes and ways to put a book together, and that is what you need. I find it mysterious that people want step by step moment by moment directions to slavishly copy someone else's book instead of looking at what they did and letting that inspire something that you can make yours.I know that people don't always have the experience of making a complicated book, but some of these are simple enough so that you can read the nicely written directions for the type of book and make something that you can build on. There are a million basic step by step books on making book forms out there, if you are desperate for one don't get this. However, if you have made a book or two and you want to do more, this book will inspire you and spur you on to make something of your own. Do it, you will be so glad you made something that is truly yours.Additionally, the contact information on all the makers shown here will put you into a pool of continuing ideas from the makers via their blogs or websites or instagram pages. Those probably won't give you step by step directions either, but inspiration is so much better!

The first two thirds of this book is filled with inspiring designs for "out of the box" type books. Definitely interesting and inspiring. If you are looking for actual instruction for making books, as I was, the last third of the book has instructions and illustrations for making some of the designs and achieving the different stitches.

This is NOT a how-to book. This is an inspirational book. You can find many tutorials online that can supplement what you see in this book. There are some limited tutorials in the end of the book but I strongly recommend if you are a beginner, to look at tutorials online. There are many.In the meantime, looking through the beautiful photography you will be inspired to create something that is uniquely yours.

To begin with, there's nothing wrong with the book, per sé. There are many clever and inspirational bookbinding ideas and designs contained within from bookbinders who are obviously quite talented and skilled. That being said, if you're looking for a book that is primarily tutorials and how-tos, this is not the book for you. The book is less than 200 pages long and the tutorials don't begin until page 132. The back does say "24 easy-to-follow tutorials," and I can say they are fairly simple if you can follow directions, but I personally think the description on Amazon is a little misleading.Additionally, if you're looking for something that focuses more on basic or traditional European-style bindings (with a clear and solid spine, using glue/paste and thread, etc.), then this book might also not be for you. There are a lot of ideas for folded bookbinding, which I personally find to be boring. There are, however, some really interesting Japanese and Egyptian sewn binding techniques within that I think are beautiful.TL;DR As others have stated, the book is decent enough if you're looking for inspiration, as it functions more as a book of designs rather than tutorials. The tutorials that are present are few, and they were only vaguely useful for me, which is why I returned it. The tutorials also are not just binding techniques, either, as they branch out into paper marbling or making natural plant dyes, and while this is interesting I think it would have been better to put those in a separate book where people aren't expecting solely bookbinding tutorials. So, not a bad book, but not for me and not what I was expecting when I bought it.

I only buy hard bound copies of craft type books, and this book was/is excellent. Beautiful pictures, great information. Well worth the investment. Great addition to your HandMade Book Collection.

This compact book has a multitude of wonderful book designs and designers to quickly demonstrate the scope of what you can accomplish within the world of bookcraft. Not only books themselves, but also their containers are featured within this small reference--as well as a plethora of binding and layout techniques to facilitate you in your own creative process. This is a fantastic book to be both inspired by and reference in developing personally-crafted tomes for yours as well as others' enjoyment.

This book is full of beautiful examples. I think the instructions are difficult to follow, especially for beginners.

Little book full of inspiration for book artists. The bulk of the book is showcasing book artists amazing work, with some how to in the back. I actually learned two new stitched and really enjoyed reading about other book artists and what they are doing in their studios