The Book Bindery

Description

Newly rewritten! Sarah Royal spent some time working in a Chicago book bindery. From the get-go, she dispels any of our illusions of book-making fantasy, "It's a glorified Kinko's..." and gives us a guided tour of her work and co-workers. It's funny-especially the snippets of dialog, and it's full of beautiful photos of the bindery. Sometimes the humor is at the expense of her co-workers, or those in the bindery's hilariously out-of-control neighborhood. So if you like stories about quirky employees interacting, or killing time on the clock, then this zine is for you!

Sarah Royal is a writer and coauthor of Creative Cursing and Creative Cussin'. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

If you associate things like 'soul-crushing' and 'menial' with what you do, you'll definitely appreciate this book. Somehow the author avoids coming across as a ghetto-tourist fascinated by the lives of the proletariat--it's the manipulative managers and company values that she understands to be the real adversary. It's a difficult balance to strike without patronizing the people who're stuck in these jobs, but given that the book is written from an inside-looking-out perspective it succeeds in creating a realistic looking snapshot of a lifestyle that is sadly becoming a daily reality for an increasing amount of people. - Riot Continues in the long tradition of the irritable labor zine, with its laugh-out-loud tales of mischief, slacking off, stealing time, and sneaky insubordination. When she adds in the local color--tales of mobsters setting cars on fire in the neighborhood and nutbar naked dudes squatting the parking lot--it rounds everything out to a well-told and hearty tale of work, both familiar to anybody who's had a shitty job and quite unique. - Razorcake