Forum

Hi has anyone else noticed this? I recently bought "Twelve Recipes" and "The Pizza Bible" seems to me the covers of these books aren't bound really well to the spine and cover is maybe compressed paper? I don't think they are defective just wondering if book binding quality has gone down? are publishing companies using synthetic paper? compared to my older books, they feel different in the hand, if that makes sense? Thanks.

Several publishers seem to be using a new system of binding, particularly on books printed in the Far East, with a weak paper joint between cover, spine and book, which splits very easily with use. No doubt it saves them money, but just how these books will last is open to debate.

Leith's Cookery Bible and other titles, the Complete Bocuse, inter alia, all have this binding.

Ray S

I've noticed this with some books as well.  I have Jerry Traunfeld's Herbal Kitchen which was published in 2005 in Hong Kong.  I've only had the book a few years and I haven't cooked from it all that much, yet the pages are literally peeling away from the binding -- this happened almost the first time I opened it and has gotten progressively worse.  It won't be long before I'll have to hold the book together with a rubber band!  

I've recently started reinforcing the hinges on newly bought books using a product called Tyvek Super Hinge Tape bought from a book care company that also does good lines of dust jacket covers etc.

If publishers don't want to see the printed book replaced by electronic versions, they should give some thought to improving the quality of their expensive products and design their bindings to last.

Ray S

Not with the spines, but about 15-20 pages in the middle of of Markus at home is smeared typing and very hard to read.  I have to skip over those pages.  Almost like the ink ran. Never had this type of a problem before.