Not every book is destined to be read, cherished, and preserved for posterity. The sad reality is that huge numbers of books are shredded, recycled, or sent to the landfill every day worldwide. Yet therein lies an opportunity for the recycling-conscious or frugal bookbinder. If you have (or can get your hands on) some inexpensive or unwanted books, it’s possible to reclaim some perfectly usable, and often beautiful, materials to use in your own projects. In this video I will show you how to break down an old book, how to strip the covering materials to yield plain greyboard, how to build a handy piercing cradle from a book cover, how to upcycle a page from your old book to make a handsome cover for a pocket notebook, and finally how to sew a simple pamphlet binding for the cover we just made. A word of caution though, before you start tearing into an old copy of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ or your kid’s university textbooks: always be certain the book you’re thinking of recyc