Blank books made from discarded vintage hardcovers

Posted by Cory Doctorow, April 22, 2008 6:11 AM | permalink

Ex Libris Anonymous -- who make handsome blank books out of discarded hardcovers, with random interior pages bound in -- have a lot of lovely new designs up. I'm especially fond of the new set of Better Homes and Gardens BBQ cookbooks. Link

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#1 posted by Abby Normal , April 22, 2008 6:42 AM

These are amazing!

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#2 posted by lautaylo , April 22, 2008 7:11 AM

I really love these when they keep in the old content of the book - esp. these Better Homes & Gardens cookbooks. My MIL has a set of the originals. They have lovely recipes and delightful dated illos.
I bought something similar @ Eugene, OR's Winter Market - "The Poky Little Puppy", my favorite kids' book, turned into a blank note/sketchbook. The covers and "golden" binding had been used to bind in the blank pages, and the original pages of the story were bound in at the back of the book. I'll have to look up the seller and send in her info, as she had a ton of cool stuff in the same vein with lots of whimsical details.

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#3 posted by azurefog , April 22, 2008 8:15 AM

I bought something similar at my local Farmers Market in Salt Lake City as well. Nothing like getting hardcover Mormon-abilia as a note book! My current notebook is the lovely children's book: "Tony Beaver: Griddle Skater". Looks great in meetings!

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#4 posted by gorfulator , April 22, 2008 9:05 AM

This is very cool BUT!!

Make sure the book isn't collectible before altering!! That goes for vinyl records too!!!

You'd be surprised how much people pay for collectible ephemera!!

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#5 posted by ReboundDesigns , April 22, 2008 9:34 AM

GORFULATOR, if they're anything like me, most of the books they use are from library discards, thrift stores, and the trash. Sure, I find some valuable things now and then, but those do get saved. I'll bet Ex Libris takes the same care.

I'm a huge fan of theirs, I can see at least 4 notebooks from where I'm sitting, and I've bought twice that many as gifts. We old-book-recyclers have to stick together!

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#6 posted by James David , April 22, 2008 10:07 AM

I've seen these at Magpie in Boston... they're like our local Etsy.

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#7 posted by jmorino , April 22, 2008 11:02 AM

I got a book similar to this, but it used the front of an old VHS box. Excellent idea for recylcing data technology...

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#8 posted by CarnyTrash