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11 September 2010

I need an old worthless book. A friend of mine wants an edition of Dracula as shown in the linked picture--a massive, beat-to-hell tome. [More:] Does anyone have anything similar that I could use? Perhaps a water-damaged dictionary or such? The older and crappier, the better. As long as the covers and spine are semi-intact, I can use it. I will print and bind the pages myself. TIA.
No, but you can always go to a good used bookstore and find something for cheap.
posted by amro 12 September | 09:04
That's just so cool.

It would be so easy to make yourself. The covers and binding are nothing but cardboard and fabric. So cut out cardboard in the sizes that you want. Buy some linen in the color required, or dye it the color that you want, and then stain it and dirty it up. Make it look crap. Glue it onto the cardboard pieces and then sand it away all over to make it look worn. Dirty it up some more. Write DRACULA on it. Attach cool rusty hinge like in the pic. Glue it all together. Voila. You can do it for free if you have old fabric laying around, and can find an old hinge.
posted by iconomy 12 September | 09:41
I have been doing bookbindings from scratch for a couple years now. Doing a realistic aging is way beyond my means, and for this project, the age of the hardcovers is the most important characteristic. I will be looking in bookshops here, but the condition I want is not one that a shop is likely to keep around. I want something that looks like it has spent the last hundred winters in a drafty old Yankee barn.
posted by Ardiril 12 September | 14:22
I wish I could help, I can age fabric like you wouldn't believe. Dirt, wetting and shrinking in the dryer, and sandpaper can work wonders. The key factors for the cover are some looseness (as in, the fabric's come away from the board a bit) fraying, and soiling. And no hard edges anywhere - every corner and edge should be time-worn.

Here's a pretty dilapidated book, if you don't mind paying. That seems a ridiculous price for a book being sold for how cool it would look on a shelf though.....

You should go to your local library and ask if they have any they're throwing out.
posted by iconomy 12 September | 15:02
I was taking a stab in the dark posting this here on the odd chance that someone had something that had been lying under the cellar stairs soaking up the rusty water of a leaky pipe.
posted by Ardiril 12 September | 15:36
I have an old family bible that looks a lot like that. Unfortunately, it is an old family bible...
posted by DarkForest 12 September | 20:35
OMG! Baby zebra! || HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLDCHEF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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