This is a wonderful book. It teaches a variety of book formats in a colorful and lively way. Great illustrations and sample pictures. Iam going to use it as a required text in my bookarts class next semester.

I have acquired several books over the years purporting to show how to make one's own books. And while they were often pretty and even artistically inspiring, none of them ever made me feel that I had sufficient skill to actually make a book. I would leaf through them and think, "Wow, these are neat...but I can't do that. Where would I get this stuff? What's a signature, anyway?"

Then I saw this book, and thought, "Aww, what the heck, even if I don't make a book, this one is so gorgeous that I can't leave it in the store."

I read the first bit the Friday night after I brought it home, and Saturday morning started folding and tearing and stamping and painting, and - ta da! - a pile of little instant books! Thrilling!

Over the course of the next two weeks I went crazy on the long-stitched food box books. Now six weeks have passed and I have stacks of folded signatures tucked all over the house relaxing, a fine selection of threads and a frenzy for book creation.

This is an inspirational volume, beautifully designed, engagingly written, and a very inviting instructor.

I'll pull out this book every time I want to make a book or journal. With this book in my library I'll never forget how.

Bev in Arizona

Esther Smith's "How to Make Books," which combines warmly written narratives with clearly written instructions, has shown me how to bring my love of reading into the third dimension. I love that active reading forces self-reflection; however, bare words, in that they can always be contradicted, often confuse more than they help. Through folding and cutting Instant Books, and quickly filling them with compiled words and images, I can instinctively react to an author's idea without second guessing away from myself. Esther Smith's examples, alongside her encouragement to experiment, have helped me see myself more clearly. My eyes and hands are involved with words in a wonderful new way, and I highly recommend this book to other readers.

Full disclosure alert: I haven't seen every book-making craft book out there, but I have a few of the big ones, and this is the book I like best. Why? Simple: clarity and ease of instructions. I don't know about you, but a little too often I find myself reading through the instructions in a craft book going, "Okay, but how do I DO that?" Not so with this book. That really set it apart.

Plus, the author is just so charming! She packs plenty of stories from a full life as an artist into these pages; they're a fun read and very inspiring too. I was delighted to discover that she gives classes at Cooper Union in NYC. Her class is now on my to-do list.

With a bulging shelf and a hard drive full of patterns, I'm on a craft book diet right now, but I had to make an exception for this one because it's so good.