[Publib] Books

[Backwage at aol.com]

Here's a Friday amusement for you.  This is a question from a friend,  and 
my answer.
 
---------------------------------------  

My  husband bought a book in France years ago whose pages are 
(accidentally, we  assume) uncut at the top. So when you try to turn Page 1, you see Page 
4  (because pages 2 and 3 are facing each other and the top of the pages is 
 uncut). The whole book is like that. 
Is this a book-binding convention  with which you are familiar? Or did 
someone just goof so John should take a  scissors and actually finally be able 
to turn the pages and read them all?  Actually, I'm assuming someone goofed 
in any case, because as it is the book  can't be read. But can you think of a 
reason other than someone fell asleep at  the binding wheel?



Answer:  
 
During that period it was common for publishers to publish books with their 
 pages unseparated at top or side.  Most readers kept a little tool called 
a  page marker, which we would call a bookmark; that tool was a flat metal  
piece with an end shaped like a knife blade.  This would be used to slit  
open the pages.  Nowadays folks use a playing card or an index card.   Here's 
a nice piece about that:
 
_http://www.mywingsbooks.com/coll-terms/edg02_.shtml_ 
(http://www.mywingsbooks.com/coll-terms/edg02_.shtml) 
 
You know two things when you find a book like this:  That it is  old, and 
that nobody actually read it before you came along.
 
Michael McGrorty

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