Reading in Reykjavík

I took the first class on Saturday, three classes behind everyone else because I was on a waiting list and someone dropped out after the course started. This means I get double classes the next three Saturdays so I can catch up with the others. Oh yes, the others: I am by far the youngest student in the class which is a merry group of (mostly) pensioners. Everyone but one woman belongs to my grandparents’ generation, and the one exception is of my parents’ generation. The teacher tells me that not many younger people want to take bookbinding classes, perhaps a sign that the disposable mentality has firmly established itself. I got started preparing and binding a collection of small booklets of fairy tales I have owned since I was a child and were published before my parents were born. In this first class I learned to repair pages, prepare endpapers, ready the book for binding and hand-sew the signatures together, and also how to take apart a book for rebinding. The teacher recommends h...

I’ve signed up for a bookbinding course. It has always saddened me to see books that are in bad condition, bindings falling apart and covers falling off, and I have some at home that I want to repair. Having a book rebound is expensive – in fact it often costs more than buying a new copy, and I expect that by repairing about 6 books I will have recouped the cost of the course. Plus, my grandmother has stopped her bookbinding activities and has promised to give me all her equipment once I have done the course, so I will not need to buy equipment. She has everything but a guillotine (book-cutter) and letter stamps, but I will only need those if I need to put new covers on a book or make a book from scratch. I am supposed to bring some bound books to experiment on, scissors, a sharp pocket knife and a darning needle. --------- Now, if someone can explain to me why comments that are posted to my Blogger blogs have suddenly stopped getting e-mailed to me? I still have the e-mail option on, ...