Making Books at Home is Not Impossible

One blogger and Tolkien/Chesterton admirer looks back on writing her FIRST book (totally the hand made style, only copy being original):

Elenatintil : That time I wrote my first book
http://elenatintil.blogspot.com/2014/06/that-time-i-wrote-my-first-book.html

I left this comment (not sure whether it will be published or not) (yeah, it was published):

If you homeschool yours, and want a printed version of the project, how about doing like this: 1) number page pairs as follows: 8 - 1 2 - 7 6 - 3 4 - 5 16 - 9 10 - 15 14 - 11 12 - 13 etc. 2) Let each pupil who contributes fill in after pagination order, not as the pages come in the cahier/notebook. Wait till a good completion has occurred. 3) Copy page pairs on copy machines so that eventually 8/1 (16/9) is top to top with 4/5 (12/13) and so that 2/7 (10/15) is top to top with 6/3 (14/11). Then make from these two sheets (per final print sheet) double sided copies so that 8/1 is back to back with 2/7 (which means 8 is back to back with 7, as should be, and 2 back to back with 1, as should be). As many of these as you wish for copies of the book. 4) Fold each print sheet over so that 2/7 is front to front with 6/3 (which will mean that 2 faces 3 and 6 faces 7 as you open there, as should be). Then fold again so that the 4/5 page pair gets a fold in the middle. 5) Collect for each copy all the print sheets, folded, and use your best talents as a bookbinder (or pay a professional) to make a book out of them.

I know what I am talking about, since I have done such artisanal printed books myself. The mainstay of hglwrites blog is the back and front sides of print sheets, handwritten. On that blog, I have the "further use" conditions (further as in beyond reading) which are common to that blog and most of mine on blogger:

hglwrites : A little note on further use conditions
https://hglwrites.wordpress.com/a-little-note-on-further-use-conditions/

Obviously, the above method is not the only one I accept, I have nothing against more industrialised versions of book printing.

But other content is as said back and front sides of print sheets. Plus a little more.

hglwrites
https://hglwrites.wordpress.com/

Example (3 sheets, 24 pages):

hglwrites : Introduction à la Théorie Musicale
https://hglwrites.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/introduction-a-la-theorie-musicale/

Obviously, the positing of pages also functions if you start with printouts from a computer, as I did with one collection of three essays in French:

hglwrites : Géocentrisme, trois essais
https://hglwrites.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/geocentrisme-trois-essais/

(It seems they were deleted, the back and front of this one!)

Since only one print sheet, back before the deletion, I used it to make booklets joined in the back by staples.

Of course, I left out the fact that top folds have to be cut up, but anyone who has handled older books like paper backs from thirties, knows that anyway. And as Elenatil is a book geek, I take it that includes her.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
Friday after Annunciation
Day, 27-III-2015