Bookbinding, or: I can only do this in English.

I recently took some classes at the San Francisco Center for the Book, such as Bookbinding, among others. It is extremely fascinating to learn what goes inside a handbound book, and I caught myself several times now standing in front of my bookshelf or in a bookstore, analyzing the parts of various books.

Besides the fact that a book isn't "just a book" for me anymore, but a sophisticated and meticulously assembled piece of craftmanship made from beautiful materials, taking these classes had another side effect: I'm adding words to my English vocabulary for which I don't know the German equivalents. While I'm experiencing this in other areas after almost four years in the US, it is especially the case with bookbinding. What the heck does flyleaf mean in German, what is the equivalent of a spine wrapper, what do you call turn-ins in my native tongue?

Thanks to some German bookbinding sites on the internet I was able to whip my vocabulary book into shape, at least for the most part, so that the German descriptions of the photos I took during class aren't too interspersed with English bookbinding lingo. Enjoy!

All pictures here:
Bookbinding II - from sections to a sewn textblock, and "Hooray, the case fits!"
Bookbinding III - a nicely rounded spine deserves a handsewn endband

P.S. One of the German bookbinding websites that I really like a lot is tulibri's blog, published by a German bookbinding enthusiast with great photos and descriptions. In both German and English!

Oops.

"Look, Sweetie, the pictures of Mike and Marg that Jay took with our camera at Jess's wedding, near that window in the back, towards the end of the evening...?"

"Yes?"

"They're all totally weird. I wonder what he was doing. They're framed completely odd."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, they're pretty much useless."

"Sweetheart, _I_ took these pictures."

[Silence]

All pictures of Jess and Doug's wedding here. Almost all of them.

Trick or Treat - Halloween 2007

Halloween is one of Ed's most favorite holidays, and we celebrated it this year with a party at our house. As usual, I had lots of fun cooking and decorating - when else can you make maggots out of marzipan and serve noodle salad in a kitty litter box?

The winners of our costume contest, if only we had had one: Danan and Manisha as "Ed and Ineke" (top right in the picture).

All photos here:
Kathy and I carving pumpkins (10/11/2007)
Halloween party (10/26/2007)