Making a book

The whole skill-books thing really piqued my interest. Even while I was going around trying to find affordable books to absorb, there was one thing on my mind.

What makes a book, a book?

Like, say I found an e-book version of a book – those are usually cheaper than hard copies – and was able to download it and print it, what would it take to turn those loose pieces of paper into a book that I could absorb? A few staples here and there? Paperclips? Glue?

So in my free time I found myself researching something that would probably raise a few eyebrows. I want to learn what counts as a book, the types of books, and the elements that make a book a book. Yeah, definitely the sort of thing no sane person would care to look up…

Is what I thought at first. But what do I find after typing in 'making a book,' on YouTube? Legit videos of people making books whether by hand or using machinery. And they have views too; some even with millions of views! Instead of spending time wondering why people cared about this subject, I decide to simply make use of them. Don't look gift horses in the mouth and all that.

I scroll down the page, checking out moving thumbnails. Seems like the ones made by hand are more journal or diary-type books. Made with blank paper as the foundation. The books I'm familiar with, the ones you just read, are made in factories using automation. Hm. I look around a bit more and click on a video about book binding at home. I make sure it's a simple book too, not some fancy, medieval-looking tome. You know the type, the ones you see in games featuring spell books; the ones with buckles and metal corner protectors on them. Something like that would only be a waste of time. So I start the video and brace myself to be bored to death.

I watch two of those videos for the sake of variety and what I see does not make me happy. Sure I now know about signatures, and using string in the spine of the book, and even how to go about making the exterior of the book but the handcrafted version simply takes too much time. Not as much perhaps as having to actually read the book but I'm certain there's a quicker way to go about this. So I check out the factory version. I'd chosen not to start there because I don't have the machinery but maybe I can come up with alternatives.

Couple takeaways from watching books be mass produced: it's actually pretty simple and a lot of paper seems to be thrown to recycling. The process starts with pages being printed, then the exterior is printed and seemingly laminated, and after that the pages are clasped together while adhesive is applied to the spine. The machines then stick the pages onto the jacket and after slicing off the excess, the book is basically ready for shipping. Not bad. Much more to my liking.

And now we move to the testing phase.

…

Not every book brings up the skill-book notice.

From what I've noticed, only – and I'm going to put this in my own words – hard data can be 'learned.' Things like agreed upon terms, math equations, scientific laws and theories.

A book about military tactics used in WW1?

I can learn that.

A copy of any Harry Potter book?

That's a no.

AP-level psychology?

Yes.

A Rick Riordan work?

No.

I could go on but I won't. As long as it's some type of knowledge that applies to this world and people generally agree on, there's a chance that I can learn that book. Makes me wonder how it works with contrasting ideas. Like, even just a few decades ago people were operating under misconceptions that people today think are obviously wrong. So assuming people as a whole can be and often are wrong, what are the odds that a skill-book I learn today becomes invalidated tomorrow? Would I get some sort of software update to fix that skill? A patch of some sort?

Would I even be notified or would my skill be changed without my awareness? Like today I know something and tomorrow it's changed?

You know what, that's actually kind of intimidating…

Er, repress!

Okay. This whole monologue about what counts as a skill-book is because I had to take a trip to the school library and find a book that one, was learnable and two, was short. If I was going to print some book as a test then logic dictates the book be as short as possible to save on money. I found a decent one after a bit of searching, the subject was history. Not what I'd have preferred but it met the criteria.

After that I looked the book up on this platform called Z-Library, self-proclaimed largest e-book library in the world. You provide the title, author, or even the ISBN code and provided they have the book in their system, you can download it. Absolutely HUGE collection that ranges from fiction novels to course textbooks to whatever else people read these days. A major money saver depending on your needs. And the funny thing is, I actually learned about it through Tik Tok; it was featured in a video about what they don't want people to know. So say what you will about that app, thing comes in clutch sometimes. I was able to download the book as a PDF and save it onto a flash-drive which I then took to a local FedEx and printed with a bit of finetuning to make it like a book.

The final price had me wincing internally but it was worth it to proceed with this experiment.

I don't waste any time getting started when I get back home.

Aligning the pages in order is easy, if a bit time consuming, and once done with that I staple all of them together.

I wait, even try flipping through it, but nothing happens. Figures. I expected this result since stapling pages doesn't make them a book but I still wanted to try it this way. Just in case you know.

I pull out the staples and toss the black and white cover page into the wastebin, don't need that anymore. Grabbing the fully-colored and laminated – on one side – sheet I'd made; I get to work. This piece consists of the cover, allotted space for the spine, and the back of the book in one long sheet which I go about gluing to the loose pages. One thing I realized was that books have distinct exteriors. Even with paperbacks, the pages inside the book are different from the material making the cover; where the pages are simple paper, the exterior is usually thicker and has a slight layer of lamination. I assume this is for protection and maybe even aesthetics but it makes it so you can tell them apart by sight and feel this way. The same can't be said for pages stapled together. So when the test earlier failed, I got a feeling the lackluster exterior was the reason why. Something I can test as soon as this glue is dry.

Ten minutes later and I pick up the finished product.

Skill-book: Understanding the Industrial Revolution obtained. Do you wish to learn it?

Fuck yeah.

Love it when things go to plan.

…

The work doesn't stop with one successful test. No sir, it's the opposite actually.

I've proven I can make skill-books so now the focus switches to making them efficiently which also translates to 'I need a printer.' We have one at home, an EPSON brand that's cheap but has printing and scanning features and meets the family's needs. And by needs I mean the once in a blue moon when I have to print something for school or my parents need to print some important document. Very low frequency usage and it's ink cartridges are small but it is perfect for my household. Unfortunately, if I intend to make a habit of printing books I'm going to need a different printer which is something I've started researching now. Laser and inkjet printers seem to be the two broadest categories and each have their own benefits. Laser works best for high frequency printing, where you'll be printing lots of pages for a long period of time. It can also do color but if you want really high quality pictures then inkjet is best. Since only the title needs color I'm leaning more towards laser.

The make of the book exterior was the next problem. I could either laminate it or try printing on another type of paper, something thicker like construction paper or whatever. Different paper type would be easiest but I don't know if it would be good enough so I looked into my options for cheap lamination. Turns out you can buy pre-laminated paper at stationary stores but the downside is that laser printers don't work well with them. So luckily there are DIY lamination kits, I could buy a roll of the stuff and apply it as needed. I'd just print the necessary papers, self-laminate the exterior, and then glue in the pages and boom! Skill-book ready for learning.

All this comes at a price which is another reason I need to find a way to make money; the printer, toner, and paper won't buy themselves after all. Neither will the books I can't pira- er, procure at a reasonable price. I need money and a somewhat reliable method to keep it coming. I'm going to dig around for online job options, things that will let me create and build on computer related skills and allow me to work on a schedule I pick. Should be easy to figure out; if I can learn how to make books from the web then I should definitely be able to learn how to make money using computers.

While I'm working out the how, I should also think about the what.

If all goes to plan, I'm going to be like a rich kid in a candy shop. So many options in front of me that I could end up learning stuff that I don't need or not learning the stuff that would benefit me most. I don't want that problem so it's best if I have a plan before reaching that point, a way to maximize my gains and steadily build on them. Maybe I could consolidate my foundation in terms of critical thinking skills and high school level knowledge to help with subjects I pick up later on?

Eh, I'll think on this further.

Update two of two. Happy New Years everyone!