Perfect bound books have been the most popular books of the last 60 years. This is not only because of its content but also rather because of how they are made. These books are a compromise, because they can present the same material as is available in hard covers, but at a much lower cost. With the availability of today’s technology nearly anyone can make one.

The hardcover book was the standard until paper got cheaper. This happened in the late 1800s when newspaper and pulp paper came into being. This cheap paper allowed the creation of multitude of newspapers that sprang up and allowed the creation of the cheap magazine or ‘pulp’. To create pulp magazines and the ‘dime’ novels, the same signature technique was used, but instead of sewing them together in a cloth binding, the signatures were spread with glue on their spines. The glued signatures then were affixed to wraparound covers, usually of a heavier stock.

The creation of these glued magazines caused a groundswell of interest in reading for entertainment by the masses. The pulps were at the forefront of cheap reading material from the 1890s until they ceased to exist in the mid-1950s. But now again perfect binding has got its hold in Toronto.