UK source for notebooks recycled from vintage books

I was introduced to this concept by VertOlive's post on Book Journals (https://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread...bris-Anonymous), which included a link to the site selling unique individual journals made from recycled books.

As I was looking for Christmas gifts for my wife, I loved the idea and ordered three - two for Mrs. B and, of course, one for me. At first things went swimmingly, but then I received a mail from Jacob, the owner of the site, saying that the postage was wrong. The new postage rate was, sadly, more than I wanted to pay but Jacob couldn't offer a better rate as it would make the deal uneconomic for him - after a number of friendly mails we agreed that a refund was the best way forward.

As understandable as it was, I was in a pickle - I loved the concept and was out a notebook gift, I needed something closer to home.

After a bit of google-fu, I came across Rebound Books (reboundbooks.co.uk) an organisation in Wales who mainly employ people who have learning disabilities, and are a part of the international L'arche charity.

One of the major issues running a charity is that people donate a load of stuff which cannot be re-sold - either it's worn out, broken or it's books. Every charity shop you ever wander into will have a million Gilly Cooper's and Andy McNab's on the shelves, and the charity will only sell a fraction of those donated, most hang around for years. By "up-cycling" these books into usable notebooks, including various pages from the original book scattered at random through the notebook and often using the original spine as a bookmark, the long-term shelf-dwellers can find a further use in the hands of somebody who needs to record their thoughts, detail important things or just make shopping lists.

Every notebook is unique and with many on the shelves, the perfect one for you may already be waiting for you.

Thank you to VertOlive for the original inspirations, and for those of you in the US, I'd heartily recommend visiting bookjournals.com - Jacob is a great guy and treated me well. Those of us on this side of the Atlantic can find Rebound Books at reboundbooks.co.uk and Nigel is similarly decent chap and will see you right.