Customer Reviews

The Booklover's Repair Kit: First Aid for Home Libraries

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I got an issue of a German women's magazine Freundin and theyfeatured this Booklover's Repair Kit. I'd been looking all over for a proper set of materials to repair some old bindings. This is simply brilliant.

It would take me many trips or orders by mail, phone or internet to assemble all these necessary items. Not only is everything you need in this kit, but you can also use it to make your own bookbindings (you need some kind of press, but that can be a piece of wood and some clamps, and a bone folder which can be found in craft stores that carry scrapbooking items.) If you like to scrapbook or do your own journal OR if you collect old books, this kit is a must.

I was aware before I bought this kit that some reviews questioned the value of this kit and boy were they right! I bought the kit at a remaindered book store for just over thirty dollars and even at that price I feel it was not quite value for money. Admittedly it does have a good selection of repair supplies that it would be difficult to assemble elsewhere; but I feel that I would have been more satisfied if it had been priced at fifteen to twenty dollars; the list price of around one hundred dollars is crazy and you'd have to be crazy to think that was value for money. The kit is packaged in a very fancy, expensive looking, but unnecessary and rather impractical, box. The book that accompanies the kit gives detailed instructions on how to tackle some minor repairs - but they are minor - mostly tears to pages and lightly damaged covers and spine. It is FIRST AID; you cannot rebind a book with this kit and infuriatingly it gives advice on some repairs that require additional non-supplied materials for which an order form is included!
If you can get it at a much reduced price you may find it useful if you have torn pages or dustcovers, a loose flyleaf, or slightly damaged spines. But, if like me you have an old book which has a completely loose cover, and bound pages that are falling apart, you need a bookbinder; this kit will not do it.

You can assemble this so-called kit together yourself at only a fraction of the cost (even at the bargain-basement price). Let's face it, the tools provided here are poorer than poor, the same scissors, glue, and needles you'd find at any 99C store. As for the instruction book, you'd be much better off buying a real volume on book repair from either Amazon or one of those library supplies store (such as Gaylord). That leaves only the bulky box itself. I suppose it does look better than a shoebox on the bookshelf. But you'd be a fool to pay so much just for that. In short, for the same amount of money, why not buy yourself a nice new book instead?

This kit comes beautifully packaged in a very sturdy, compartmentalized box. The hardcover book with the set is lovely as well as helpful and clear. The supplies are useful - yes, some things (like the glue stick) you could get at your local office supply store, but many other included supplies are more difficult to come by and are very high quality.

As for the issue of whether or not you get real value for your money (given the high price tag) - I'll be honest. I bought this kit for less than half the ordinary retail price, so I'm extremely happy with it and feel that I got my money's worth. Had I paid over $100, I'd be a little disappointed.

I bought this item as a gift for my daughter who has thousands of books. It's a unique item, very useful, lots of info on repairing books and dust jackets. This is a great gift item for any book lover.

At last someone has grasped the depth of personal sentiment attached not merely to content but to the medium, the books themselves, those volumes with their loose covers, cracked bindings and torn pages. Thank you, Ms. Ellis and Messrs. Wiggins and Lee.

As I have watched my niece graduate from Ramona and Harry Potter to Judy Blume, I have wondered how I could give her my adored but crumbling copy of Gone With The Wind, worrying about her rejecting it for its evident decay, or worse, the book's ability to withstand another reading. Now a talented trio has put together a kit which will allow butterfingered me to repair the novel before passing it on. The Booklover's Repair Kit doesn't just tell me how to do it, in straightforward terms with helpful diagrams. Much more in fact, since everything I may need to fix the book comes with it.

If you give a damn about the books on your shelf, you will want the Booklover's Repair Kit to join them with its handsome packaging and enough supplies to fix a dozen or so tattered books, be they Proust or Mitchell.