“Rebound” means making a new cover for a book that has been damaged or is in bad condition. It can also mean the process of rebinding a book.
To “rebound” a book usually means putting an old book into a new cover. This process typically applies to older books that could have been better originally and have fallen apart or to ones published with temporary bindings (cheaper board covers), which need something more solid. The term can apply to various kinds of rebinding, depending on the rebound book’s use and what it’s meant to look like.
Rebinding can also mean a rebinding service: restoring a book and placing it in a new cover so you can sell it again. This service often applies to older titles, especially those no longer available as standard retail books (commonly called ‘out-of-print’). In some cases, they keep the original boards but redo everything else over them (putting on new leather spines & endpapers); sometimes, they put everything into completely different style covers.
Rebinding books is a practice that has existed for centuries and extends the lifespan of books. Rebound copies are often sturdier and more enduring than their original bindings. Repairing books instead of replacing them leads to savings.
The term “rebound” may also describe books that have undergone rebinding specifically for repair purposes, perhaps because the original binding was damaged or due to pages detaching from it. Frequently, such volumes are rebound in styles similar to those with which they were initially bound so as not to change their appearances.
Bookbinding outfits having histories spanning many decades consider recoating old titles an integral part of their businesses: doing so lets publishers recycle older printed works, granting them fresh leases on life while affording readers opportunities to read materials they otherwise couldn’t afford. From these perspectives, rebinding is indeed a win-win proposition.
