Repurposing a hard back book - removing pages?

[Kelpforestsea]

Hi there!
I was wondering if anyone had any genius ideas for me. I want to repurpose a hard back book and use it to stick cooking recipes in. However, the book is quite thick so I would like to remove some of the pages without damaging the binding so that I can stick things in it without it becoming too thick. Any ideas on how I can do this?!
Thanks!

Have you tried googling “how to bind a book?”. I just did it and quite a few options were available. There’s bound to be a YouTube tutorial too.

I made a bag out of an old book i had once. It's great.
Off the top of my head.
If I was making a folder type thing I'd buy a lever arch ring binder mechanism and try something like that.
Or make some fabric sides for the book so it opens like those concertina files, but use a-z sheets to file the recipes. With some ribbon/rope ties to keep it secure.

I maybe mis-understanding, but can you just not use a scalpel/craft knife to cut each page you want to remove close to the binding?

I would simply remove every other page* with a scalpel. It does depend on the bonding though - leave a margin near the bound edge to avoid pages falling out.

• depending on the thickness of what you want to stick in.

As it's a hardback book it probably has a sewn binding, rather than single sheets glued together like a paperback.

Look at the spine side on. If it looks like lots of little hillocks (nnnnnn is the nearest I can do on a keyboard) then it has sewn sections. Open the book and find the centre pages of a section. Lay the book flat and you should see the thread binding down the centre of the section. Gently tear one page away from the centre, then tease out the remaining page from the stitches. Try that for each section and repeat if you want to remove more pages.

In James bond they glue pages together and cut out a hole for the microfilm.

You could do that and have a fancy notebook inside!

I made a clock out of a very old (but not valuable!) book years ago. Cut out a hole deep enough to house the battery and mechanism inside and drilled a hole in the front for the hands.