Why is it this common that books – in whatever form and with whatever content they may come – are such popular gifts? What is their very message? What may you yourself express by giving away such a prezzie? How could some paper ever raise our attention? What’s behind our attraction to books in general? And why would you want them in the first place?

In my opinion the printed goods may represent something for us that has the chance to exist forever. Or at least for a rather long undistinguishable period of time. Books may even survive ourselves. Even, or rather, especially, in our modern, digital, times, more and more out there tend to collect them huntingly as ever before. Some even may write and create their own.

And hopefully those self-made books may be the “even better present” – a gift you would never be able to purchase. Something quite personal. Something that lasts and creates a boundary between you and the gifted person. Something – some thing – only you know of. Your own story.

Moreover, books may always allow you to become part of somewhat like a historical process. Either you write a (his-)story, you read it, consume it or you just preserve it for suceeding generations. You may gain knowledge by reading them, or, on the other hand, enjoy some spare time and consume them in a less pragmatic way. But either way you choose to pet them, you may never just finish them to throw them away. You keep your story. Neatly.

Thus, this is the story of such a present-to-keep I made quite a time ago – having loads of joy and fun with the production and the outcome even for myself. Even though not everything ended up as I would have liked it to, regarding the binding of the self-layouted, self-printed and self-cut toy in the first case, I’d always do something like that again. Hopefully, having more time to focus then and essentially more practice in both,
layouting and binding.

A whole self-made piece, with texts between the gifted person and the producer – some most likely not to be presented in public, probably. But still, I may invite you to gain some insights into the 240 pages – filled with simple words and simple ideas – written by some simple minds, by chance.