Hot take: hitting 50 books rebound is overrated

Everybody talks about rebinding 50 books like it's some huge deal, but I hit 60 last month and honestly it didn't feel that different. The real milestone was my 10th book where I finally stopped messing up the endbands. Has anyone else found the early numbers more meaningful than the big round ones?

3 comments

3 Comments

aaronlee2mo ago

Hold up on that 50 book milestone talk. I hit 50 last spring and all I got was a sore thumb and a stack of books that still have glue fingerprints on the covers. But that 10th book you mentioned? Thats where the real magic happens. You finally get why your first batch looks like a toddler tried to sew them together. I remember my 12th book was the first time I got the spine hinge to actually flex right instead of cracking like a stale cracker. Those early wins teach you way more than just piling up the numbers.

rowanw311mo ago

Fix your endbands with bone folder creases before you glue them down, saves so much headache later.

miles8252mo ago

My 14th book was the one that taught me about grain direction. I had no idea paper had a grain until I pressed a whole batch of endpapers that looked like crumpled maps later. But the number nobody talks about is book 3. That was the one where I discovered the hard way that PVA glue will soak through thin bookcloth like coffee through a napkin. Those early mistakes are the real milestones because they stay with you. The big round numbers just mean you survived long enough to get the basics down.