perfectlynormalbooks

[perfectlynormalbooks]

One-volume binding of Shimeji Simulation, one of my favorite mangas of all time. Folio size, Polar Duo, metallic silver HTV + case (with a little hole so you can see the girls being tender together 💙)

I made this one for a friend who mentioned that he'd be interested in reading the manga, but preferred to read manga in physical form. There's no licensed English translation OR print run of this, so I decided to make my own - I downloaded the Orchesc/a/ns translation/scan on MangaDex, compiled it all into a single volume, and reversed the PDF page order before imposing it into signature-form, so it can be read right-to-left, as intended! The edge art is hand-drawn by me, meant to mimic those geometric doodles that show up throughout the story. Hand-sewn headbands, to pull it together! And a little mushroom + fish charm bookmark, because OBVIOUSLY!

Fun fact: this is the first book I've ever bound that's been too chunky to fit in my home guillotine. It was nearly too big for my bookpress, too - but only nearly.

#shimeji simulation #bookbinding #my books #perfectly normal books #i could not tell you if this counts as fanbinding or not. #if nothing else this is a wholehearted rec for this manga: please go read it! it rules

[perfectlynormalbooks]

A selection of fun little notebooks I’ve put together over the last few months! Experiments in rounding + backing, as well as hand-sewn headbands

#bookbinding #perfectly normal books #my books #not fanbinding #notebooks

[perfectlynormalbooks]

I've done some smaller low-stakes blank-notebook bindings recently too, just to teach myself some new techniques and experiment a bit. I might put them all up in one larger post.

#none of them feel like dedicating an entire post to

[perfectlynormalbooks]

Some additional fun assembly/design photos! I had a lot of fun and learnt a LOT about a bunch of new techniques while pulling this together.

Binding of the technically-unpublished technically-unfinished Doctor Who novel, Time's Champion by Craig Hinton! This was a commission for a friend, and they've officially recieved it now so I can ramble about design choices. The book is a folio binding with rounded spine, which is something I've been working on learning for a bit now.

The book cover - obviously designed to look like Six's coat! I used this excellent blog post as a reference while tracking down all of the bits of colorful fabric I'd need, it was a lifesaver. There's a little cat charm on the ribbon, because of course there is, and (it's not really visible in any of the photos) hand-sewn headbands in black-and-yellow, to resemble the sleeves of that coat.

If the book itself is Six, then the case is the Valeyard! Because obviously, this book is all about the conflict between those two. The clamshell case was a last-minute addition, because I hadn't ever done one before and wasn't sure if I'd be able to pull it off. But I did, and it looks great - that's metallic silver HTV on the outside. 'Time's Champion' is on the spine using the WS Simple Gallifreyan font - I thought about using Sherman's, but it's a bit too circular. The writing around the front and back frame is in Assassin's Gallifreyan, aka the writing the Doctor uses in the serial The Deadly Assassin. It's the names of all of the gods of Gallifrey, who show up in the book itself - Time, Fate, Life, Pain, Hope, and Death - repeated over and over. The book fits snugly into the case, and I've got my fingers crossed that it managed to protect the book on the way over.

I kept the internal typeset simple - Alegreya typeface with Bernard MT Condensed chapter headings and highlights. These are the straightest margins I've ever cut in my life. I impressed myself.

And here's a few pages from my design notebook from when I was pulling it together:

There's a LOT more progress pics lying around, but Tumblr only allows 10 images per post - I'll have to add more later!

#time’s champion #WIP pics

[perfectlynormalbooks]

Binding of the technically-unpublished technically-unfinished Doctor Who novel, Time's Champion by Craig Hinton! This was a commission for a friend, and they've officially recieved it now so I can ramble about design choices. The book is a folio binding with rounded spine, which is something I've been working on learning for a bit now.

The book cover - obviously designed to look like Six's coat! I used this excellent blog post as a reference while tracking down all of the bits of colorful fabric I'd need, it was a lifesaver. There's a little cat charm on the ribbon, because of course there is, and (it's not really visible in any of the photos) hand-sewn headbands in black-and-yellow, to resemble the sleeves of that coat.

If the book itself is Six, then the case is the Valeyard! Because obviously, this book is all about the conflict between those two. The clamshell case was a last-minute addition, because I hadn't ever done one before and wasn't sure if I'd be able to pull it off. But I did, and it looks great - that's metallic silver HTV on the outside. 'Time's Champion' is on the spine using the WS Simple Gallifreyan font - I thought about using Sherman's, but it's a bit too circular. The writing around the front and back frame is in Assassin's Gallifreyan, aka the writing the Doctor uses in the serial The Deadly Assassin. It's the names of all of the gods of Gallifrey, who show up in the book itself - Time, Fate, Life, Pain, Hope, and Death - repeated over and over. The book fits snugly into the case, and I've got my fingers crossed that it managed to protect the book on the way over.

I kept the internal typeset simple - Alegreya typeface with Bernard MT Condensed chapter headings and highlights. These are the straightest margins I've ever cut in my life. I impressed myself.

And here's a few pages from my design notebook from when I was pulling it together:

There's a LOT more progress pics lying around, but Tumblr only allows 10 images per post - I'll have to add more later!

#bookbinding #fanbinding #my books #perfectly normal books #doctor who #doctor who eu #time's champion #sixth doctor

[perfectlynormalbooks]

I'm still completely in awe that I get to keep this on my bookshelf in my actual for real life house and home; it's such an absolutely stunning piece and you went SO HARD on every aspect of it. Thank you thank you thank you.

Fanbinding: Hibernating with Ghosts by @fayet

Getting stuck in Kaedwen in winter had never been on Jaskier's plan.

Hyped to share photos of the set I made at the end of 2023 for the @renegadepublishing annual exchange! In addition to "Hibernating With Ghosts" these volumes include 30 pencil illustrations by @saeculorum-art, the fic's prequel Silent friend of many distances, and a song (The Siren Song) by @stillmadaboutpetra. I was over the moon that they all agreed to allow their work included so i could make this for the lovely Kitty / @perfectlynormalbooks (thank you for the intro to the wonderful fic!!).

This book was bound in Duo dragonfly cloth, with marbled lokta and hand-foiled cover accents. All art not by saeculorum is sourced from public domain woodcuts. I went a little harder than usual on the typeset, but it was a lot of fun and I finally had a good reason to use a vertical header (the chapter titles are SO LONG) and colored dropcaps (i was printing color for the art, anyway!). I justified my embroidery thread spending with a fun five-color color endband, and I colored the top edge.

I had a lot of fun making this and trying our a few different ways of doing things! Thanks again to everyone for a wonderful Renegade Exchange!

#other people's bindings #the witcher #hibernating with ghosts

[perfectlynormalbooks]

And here's the other MCU Steve/Bucky fic I did for @ashmouthbooks - build it bigger than the sun by defcontwo, also in quarto!

Forms a matching set with my other bind from this year's exchange. I like the contrast of blue-and-gold vs black-and-silver; it shows a nice contrast between the (very different) moods of the two fics.

Illustrations under the cut:

#bookbinding #perfectly normal books #my books #fanbinding #mcu #exchange binds

[perfectlynormalbooks]

The first of two MCU fics bound for @ashmouthbooks in this year's Renegade binding exchange! This one's Our Broken Parts (smashed on the floor) by This Girl Is (non_sequential), a MCU Steve/Bucky fic - bound in simple quarto.

Typeset in Alegreya. This and the other fic I bound aren't very similar beyond the pairing and fandom, but I wanted to make them feel like somewhat of a matched set, so they have pretty similar visual appearances!

bonus (very small sketchy) illustrations, under the cut:

#bookbinding #fanbinding #perfectly normal books #mcu #my books #exchange binds

[perfectlynormalbooks]

Rebind of a paperback of Homer’s Odyssey I had lying around. Polar Duo with gold HTV and acrylic-painted edges.

#bookbinding #perfectly normal books #my books #not fanbinding #rebinding #the odyssey #Greek mythology

[perfectlynormalbooks]

A birthday gift for a friend: a reformatted, fully illustrated quarto casebound edition of Where In The World Is Frank Sparrow? by Angela Betzien - a play were both in some years back. All illustrations are original, and it includes some sheet music for the play's score that I wrote during that performance, just for fun.

Typeset in Alegreya, with SeeingDoubleDoingTriple used for emphasis on certain words. The full book contains 58 total illustrations, and lots of fun formatting tricks and quirks. I used a slightly thicker paper than I usually would to give the volume some heft.

The cover is bound in Polar Duo, with holographic HTV for the details! It doesn't show especially well in the photos taken, but it appears more or less black under normal light, and flashes rainbow when exposed to bright light in a dark room. The slipcase (because of course I did a slipcase) is bound with my other Duo fabric, Eister, with city, rat/hare/goat, and sparrow motifs, to tie in with various plot elements of the script.

Speedran this project in two weeks. Now I can rest.

#bookbinding #perfectly normal books #my books #fanbinding #where in the world is frank sparrow? #illustrated #I'll probably share some more of the illustrations at some point because there's SO MANY of them #and there's plenty of formatting quirks that i thought way too hard over #the truth is: if you're my friend and i care about you i'm going to go massively overboard on at least ONE bookbinding project eventually

[perfectlynormalbooks]

Some people have contacted me recently about custom notebooks/rebinding their old books, and I'm here to say: I'm delighted to take commissions for anything but ficbinding! Feel free to contact me about such, and we can work pricing out. Keep in mind, however, that I am located in Australia, and so the cost of shipping - if you live somewhere else - may be fairly terrible.

#Commissions #paying for ficbinding is iffy territory i am not prepared to delve into just yet. i do love rebinding books though

[perfectlynormalbooks]

Quarto notebook themed after Hades! Playing around with sprayed edges and spine embroidery today. More notebooks to come.

#bookbinding #perfectly normal books #my books #fanbinding #hades game #notebooks

[perfectlynormalbooks]

melliferous by arealsword. Sander Sides, tragic surrealist insectoid underworld romp, 22k words, casebound at quarto size.

Typeset in Alegreya with free-to-use vintage stock for all the flourishes and drop caps. Finding the endpaper was a lucky accident, same with the cloth used for the cover. Made to stylistically match the books of my chessboxing binding, since I like the idea of having all of my own fics looking similar on my shelf. Did I go overboard with the bee imagery? That's up to you to decide.

I would have included all of the bonus/expanded fics by other people for this universe, but it was an effort too far for me. Maybe I'll make a second (obviously larger) volume for the rest of it at some point.

#bookbinding #my books #fanbinding #perfectly normal books #sanders sides #melliferous #my fics

[perfectlynormalbooks]

I'm not sure if what I do is standard or normal (as ever), but my rough process was: cut off the cover pages, clamp the resulting text block in my book press to keep the pages from slipping, carefully strip the spine & glue from the rest of it using a hot iron and scraping tool, and then reapply several layers of glue to keep it all together, just like I'd normally do with a perfect binding.

After that, I treated it the same as any case binding textblock - glued on a spine strengthener, added endpapers and headbands, etc, then made the case and glued it all together. I'm sure there's tutorials that explain it much more succinctly and correctly than I have, though - I'd definitely go check those out if you're interested in trying it.

Hardcover rebind of Holes by Louis Sachar! My paperback cover was starting to flake away, so I did my best to rescue it. The bookcloth is Eister Duo, and all of the decals are HTV. I only had enough confidence to put a single actual hole into the cover (right through the O!) although I briefly considered riddling the whole cover case with them - the idea was dismissed because of Structural Concerns. Maybe next time.

A brief attempt at speckling the edges was made (yellow, for yellow spotted lizards). It doesn't look very good - I blame my no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather for this, and all other imperfections.

#replies #bookbinding questions

[perfectlynormalbooks]

Hardcover rebind of Holes by Louis Sachar! My paperback cover was starting to flake away, so I did my best to rescue it. The bookcloth is Eister Duo, and all of the decals are HTV. I only had enough confidence to put a single actual hole into the cover (right through the O!) although I briefly considered riddling the whole cover case with them - the idea was dismissed because of Structural Concerns. Maybe next time.

A brief attempt at speckling the edges was made (yellow, for yellow spotted lizards). It doesn't look very good - I blame my no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather for this, and all other imperfections.

#bookbinding #perfectly normal books #my books #rebinding #holes louis sachar

[perfectlynormalbooks]

Coffin by @kieraelieson. Sanders Sides, 70k, casebound at quarter size (with slipcase!), plus two bonus oneshots done up in paperback booklet style that fit in the back of the case.

Typeset in Georgia, with Vampires used for the titles/headings, and Last Rites used for the drop caps and cover. All illustrations done by me - there's six full-page pieces in total, all throughout the book, plus the title plate and chapter headers! I'll probably put all of those in another post, eventually.

The cover titling is silver HTV, which makes for a striking look against the swirly flowery grey, and I may have gone overboard with the coffin imagery in the cutouts. But in my defense, it's the title of the fic and it's a hell of an eyecatching motif.

The sole copy of this binding is now in Kiera's possession! It is a very very heartfelt gift to her for all of the wonderful things she's created and the absolutely killer podfic she did for one of my longfics. It's my dearest hope that this chunky little volume makes her day as much as the podfic made mine. 💜

#bookbinding #ficbinding #sanders sides #Coffin #my books #perfectly normal books #illustrated

[perfectlynormalbooks]

A blank Seventh House Locked Tomb-themed notebook for notes and sketches! Quarto casebound, with HTV details on cover and embroidery stitching along the spine. Made a decent attempt at gold stamp-foiling the page edges, which wasn't as successful as I would have liked, but I can only improve from here. This bad boy can fit so much fucked up necromantic nonsense in it.

#perfectly normal books #fanbinding #bookbinding #my books #Perfectly Normal Books #The Locked Tomb #notebook