BOOKBINDING.
cro THII EDITOR OF THY " SPECTATOR.") Silt,—Your correspondent, Mr. Williams, has hit on one fault with regard to modern bookbinding, but not the only fault. It was mentioned, I believe, at the recent Conference of Librarians that the sheets in many cases are not stitched, the binders being content with glueing them to the covers. Expensive books are treated in this way, as well as cheap books, and the result is that directly a volume is used it comes to pieces. There was a time when a book said to be bound in cloth was really bound ; now it is merely put together cheaply and badly. If the book- buyer is forced after the use of a few weeks to rebind his pur- chases, it would be more for his advantage if new books were issued, as on the Continent, in paper covers. But it is surely a miserable kind of economy that induces our great London pub- lishers to bring out their volumes in this slovenly fashion.—I
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