Book binding paper

Well, that was unexpected! This morning in our Civilizations class at BYU we were assigned a paper for our final! (A more detailed description of the assignment can be found here.) How unconventional of Zina Peterson and Gideon Burton to do something as conventional as a paper. It's so filled with irony.

Alright, so it won't be so bad, but what

do I argue?? The paper is supposed to be about the recent bibliography assignment where we had to find 5-10 books about a certain topic revolving around printed books. I picked the "art" of book binding because I'd never thought of book binding in this way, and it interested me. I'd never really considered it an "art", let alone given much thought to the binding process at all.




So near the end of class I decided to have a little talk with Dr. Peterson, and see if she had any ideas on the pretty straight forward topic. She reminded me to search the Harold B. Lee Library website for sources, and told me that, although it doesn't seem so, there are many people who feel strongly about what book binding has brought about. Bound books were more durable and cost efficient, but more specifically, they could be used to do such things as missionary work abroad since they were more cost efficient, durable, and compact. This is what I plan to do my paper on. I'd love hear suggestions, and if anyone has any ideas on what I should write about or what they might like to know more about concerning book binding, please, do tell. I'd also love to hear what you guys are planning for your papers.