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At long last, a classic dust jacket is freed of its pressure-tape mummification and returns to its corner store display a little more lively than it was a month ago. 
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I'm currently in hot, slow pursuit of a dairy-related enamel sign screwed to a seemingly decades-unused wooden door in an alley on Boston's North End, less than a block from the North Bennet Street School. While making my way back from yet another attempt at first contact, I spied this familiar title, in a sorry state, through the window of souvenir shop next to The Paul Revere House. A damaged book with a story based in Boston, during my first month in the city for a book restoration program? They say there're no such things as coincidences...  On a recent walk through Washington, DC, I stopped at a Little Free Library (and how could I not?) and picked up a worn paperback edition of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Having recently moved to the city, I've been desperate for a reason to pick up a bonefolder again - here was my reprieve!
 Having limited tools in my new apartment, I attempted to remove the tape mechanically from the first and last pages of the textblock using my craft knife...
 Faux-red leather book cloth will hopefully catch the eye of some other passerby when this book re-enters the Little Free Library pool.   Post-move, this was a wonderful 2-day project to get my hands back to work. This is far from a masterpiece, but the cloth and board case will ensure the novel makes it into at least a few more hands before it's through. For me, that's what bookbinding is all about. Even in the midst of a cross-country move, when I ought to be thinning out my collection for my back's sake, I can't help but be sucked in by book in need. This little volume is not only falling apart but appears to have been put back together incorrectly at some point: The accordion-fold of photos has cracked, yellowing tape across each seam, and based on the orientation of the first page, whoever did this 'restoration' refolded the photos in the opposite direction, causing several to crease and tear over time. I'm fairly certain I'll be able to clean them up nicely and strengthen the insert from the back with strips of kozo paper. The acidic paper of the booklet may be more difficult to repair, but it's strong enough yet that bringing the book to a handleable state shouldn't be a problem.  The stamped cover is what originally caught my eye, but on closer inspection there's some pretty suspicious evidence of prior repair work to the spine. When I reback this, I'll have to see if I can find an image of the original spine to stamp into my new cloth.
 Because of how the leftmost picture would have necessarily attached to and folded against the pasted down photo on the front cover, I'm led to believe that whoever tried to restore this in the past accidentally folded and taped these photos in reverse.
 Detail of the worn, broken sewing.  Given the state of disrepair, the rest of the sewing was removed so that pages could be repaired and new, stronger sewing could be added.
 The stack of completely repaired and re-punched signatures.
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