When reading your favorite Dr Who fanfic online is a bore, bind it into a book!

[oddacity]

I made this a year ago but have never posted it...I post way too few projects on here! I guess that's what happens when I just hang around Fiber Friday and the swap boards!


I've been into a few fandoms online over the years, (first Sailor Moon, then Harry Potter, now Doctor Who) and have never been a huge fanfic reader, but every now and then I have an occasion to read something longer than most blog posts...a lot longer. From my days on the internet I've run into a few really long stories online that I just love. The only thing I don't love is reading them on a computer screen. The constant scrolling makes my head hurt! Also, before I had a laptop, there were much more comfortable places I'd rather be reading. Back in my Sailor Moon days I used to print my favorite story out as I went and take it with me on trips.

Now I'm super into Doctor Who. I still read hardly any fanfic, but I ran into a story a while ago and I love love love it. Doctor Who Season 4 is AMAZING for anyone who is interested....anywa y. I was messing around with some software I got with my school laptop last summer, and having finally found a way to print out booklets, taking folding/signatures into account, I felt it was finally time to try my hand at bookbinding! Much more fun than just printing out pages and stapling them together.







Some making-of shots:






I used these instructions here. They're great! They're a really good compromise between sturdy/professional looking and easy to do with no special supplies.

The outside fabric and interior paper are supposed to be reminiscent of the Time Vortex. I've got some remnants of the brown fabric with blue pinstripes from Joann that's a good fit for David Tennant's brown suit, but I'm still thinking I may make something out of it so I didn't want to use it up. I still may though. After all, the same author also wrote the equally excellent Doctor Who Season 5....

I never actually read through the story in the book after I finished it, but I did lend it to a friend who was apparently too lazy to read the story online, but would be more likely to read it in book form. Luckily for him, I did have it in book form...he found that amusing. Turns out I messed up a few pages (I spend way too much time trying to format this thing, and probably could have done it in a much simpler way than I did), and the formatting was a bit off - it cut off a few characters on the side of some pages. But mostly successful!

[rad-tastic]

Nice job! That instructable is THE BEST. At least those who don't have the patience to try and sew them all together without getting confused or ruining fingertips.

I never printed out the fanfics I used to read, mostly because I read in bed at like, 1-4 in the morning.

[gaudiknight]

That's really impressive.  I can't imagine the time it took to collate everything.  If you have any tips, I'd be dying to know.  The book itself looks really good.  I love the cover material and endpapers.

(Oddly enough you're the second person I've run across who prints out fanfic.  Can't say the urge to do so has ever struck me, but its a neat idea.  Project Gutenberg on the other hand...) 

[lovesclutter]

That is  really fantastic, no pun intended. Is it OK to print out copyrighted material in this way?

[rad-tastic]

So long as you don't sell it.

[ladylovelace]

You know, I was just thinking about doing this with Sherlock Holmes fanfic.

Now I will have no excuse not to.

[oddacity]

Awesome! I bet you could make a really neat cover for some of that.

[Bakaness]

That looks awesome! Can I ask what program you used to collate/organise the text into pages/signatures? There are some things I'd love to print out and bind.

[oddacity]

I believe it was Microsoft Office Publisher 2007. I don't think I used it 100% effectively however. It didn't turn out how I had originally planned, and I ended up doing a lot of fiddling that took several hours. I forget my exact process though. If you try it, let me know how it goes for you!