Here is another tip on binding from the UK, thanks to Brian. It is from a talk given by David Sellars which included his personal technique for single section (or a small number of very thin sections) binding to give a flat back to the spine, thus enabling it to be titled.

Since he is a designer binder he automatically assumes that the book will be in a slip case at the very least, if not a fully decorated solander box.

The boards for the cover are cut to be the height of the book, including appropriate overlaps, but the exact width of the book without allowing any overlap at the foredge. Next a strip is cut off the edge of the board the width of the narrow, glued up, section and glued in place on it. A short area at the head and toe of the strip is left un-attached to allow for later turning in of leather or book cloth. This solid spine can then be shaped as desired using a knife and / or sandpaper - either flat or rounded, you can even fit false bands if you feel like it, and covered with bookcloth, skiver or thinly pared leather.

Bring the leather over the gutter between the two sections and glue to the linen hinge, pressing it well into the groove. The leather at the head and toe can be turned in under the board to give a conventional end to the spine and then the whole glued down. The main boards are then covered and decorated as desired before being attached to the two hinges and the endpapers pasted down. If you feel like it you can use split boards to attach the hinges, but since this is a single section book this is probably an unnecessary refinement. To get the required overlaps at the foredge a gap is left at the hinge edge equal to the overlap required. This allows the covers to open easily and allows the maximum flexibility which comes from a single section book.

To sum up.

• This technique results in a book which has a rigid spine, with all the attendant advantages when lettering, but which opens completely flat. The spine supports the book and hence the boards can be as thin as you like, an important consideration when slim single section books are being bound - the ratio of book block to board thickness is critical if many such items are on a restricted length of shelf.
• The boards can be decorated off the book and then attached - which makes accidents while decorating less disastrous in most cases
• If it is necessary to recover the book block later it can be released simply by cutting the stitching and then pulling. The endpapers are the only thing which are at risk of being lost