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"At last someone has grasped the depth of personal sentiment attached not
merely to content but to the medium, the books themselves, those volumes
with their loose covers, cracked bindings, and torn pages. As I have
watched my niece graduate from Ramona and Harry Potter to Judy Blume, I
have wondered how I could give her my adored but crumbling copy of Gone
With the Wind, worrying about her rejecting it for its evident decay.
Now a talented trio has put together a kit which will allow
butterfingered me to repair the novel before passing it on. The
Booklover's Repair Kit doesn't just tell me how to do it in
straightforward terms with helpful diagrams. Much more in fact, since
everything I may need to fix the book comes with it--enough supplies to
fix a dozen or so tattered books, be they Proust or Mitchell. If you
give a damn about the books on your shelf, you will want The Booklover's
Repair Kit. Thank you, Ms. Ellis and Messrs. Wiggins and Lee."
Thomas B. Wilinsky
New York, NY
"The Booklover's Repair Kit is exactly what got me into bookbinding. It
was given to me as a Christmas present by a friend who knew my love for
antiquarian books (which I sell), and my disappointment in their
too-frequently deteriorated condition. I began with the book that came
with the Kit and earnestly began to learn the craft of book repair,
strictly as an amateur. It inspired me to take courses at the Center for
Book Arts and I have gotten good enough to repair a few items for my
local book shop and a veterinarian who has an extensive collection of
natural history volumes. I work on Wall Street as an analyst but spend
most of my spare time with antiquarian books. Now I know how to repair
them."
Michael Stewart
Peekskill, NY
"What a great gift for a book lover! It is an indispensable tool for
someone like myself - a collector of first edition photography and fine
art books.
Many of the books in my collection are well over a hundred years old and
have torn pages, ripped dust jackets, and broken spines. After being
given The Booklover's Repair Kit as a gift, I found that I was able to
make simple (and not so simple) repairs on my books in a professional
and organized way. Your kit has it all--the right tools, materials, and
an easy-to-read manual with well illustrated instructions.
I get a great satisfaction from taking a few moments to repair a damaged
book. Knowing that I have stopped deterioration of my books is
tremendously rewarding. I have enhanced not only my own, but future
readers' ability to enjoy my fine books and increased the value of my
collection. You have given book collectors like myself one more reason
to go on collecting."
Don Penny
New York, NY
"I settled down, to begin, with the first edition of a book that must
have belonged to my mother or grandmother; Aspects of the Novel, by E.M.
Forster. Seeking all the advice I could find, so I could start my own
novel, I combed my bookshelves and it leaped out at me. I opened it
eagerly, only to discover that its front joint had become detached from
its spine. By reading it, I'd surely ruin it. "Aha!" I said to myself,
'Now's the time for Estelle's magic medicine!"
I set up a table by the window, laid down some clean shelf paper,
collected wax paper and brown wrapping paper and cut them to the right
size, and unpacked the necessary items from the beautifully designed and
equipped Box of Wonders. How I enjoyed handling the Chinese bone folder,
so smooth and pretty! How like an MD I felt with my microspatula! I
followed the directions in "The Booklover's Repair Manual" as
meticulously as I could, wrapping the textblock, using the knitting
needle to extract glue from the pH-neutral adhesive bottle, repairing
the joint, both top and bottom
While it dried, I started on my mother's well-thumbed, lovingly marked,
green leather-bound Golden Treasury. Again, the joint needed attention,
but this time only a little. I was able to do this job quickly, and now,
without worrying about damaging the precious volume, I can see just
which poets Mum marked: Marlowe, Shelley, Keats, Shakespeare, Burns,
Gray, Wordsworth--and which poems she memorized.
By now, the Forster was dry too and I'm plunging into it, delighting in
his sage advice. This book is truly a jewel. I'll treasure it forever,
and when snowstorms come, I'll be sitting by the window, enjoying the
beauty of the white world, and the beauty of the old books I'm making
whole again."
Flora Biddle
New Preston, CT
"The Booklover's Repair Kit has saved a lifetime of memories for me. For
years I have cherished a copy of Nantucket Wildflowers, a book I bought
for 25 cents on Martha's Vineyard at the 1951 or 1952 West Tisbury
Annual County Fair. It was clearly elderly when I bought it. The binding
was holding on to the covers by a few threads and some of the pages
wanted to escape but never did. My husband and I used it as our teacher,
our guide in the woods and the fields and our gardening consultant in
our Gayhead summer home. Its binding was very tired after all the
workouts we gave it and the pages had water stains and an occasional
grain of good soil or Gayhead's notorious clay. Your remarkable book and
its crystal clear instructions gave me hope and courage. I do NOT HAVE
MAGIC HANDS or manual skills but I was able to work carefully, as
directed, and to put my treasure back together again. It isn't shiny and
new, of course, but it is restored and whole, pretty much as I found it
originally... worn, much used and loved.
Thanks for the rescue."
Harriet W. Goodman
Boston, MA
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