24 JULY 1926, Page 13

THE BINDING OF BOOKS

[To the Editor of the SPEcTAToR.1

SIR,- It is a very common practice to make the outer margins of books most unnecessarily wide and the inner ones so ridiculously narrow- that it is frequently difficult to read the first word of the lines without straining the binding, I have just been reading David Masters' Conquest of Disease, the inner margins of which are only three-eighths of an inch and the outer ones one inch. This is unfortunately no exception to the usual method. It looks as though those who publish books very seldom read them or they would mend their ways.—I am, Sir, &c.,

CHAS. S. ROBINSON. Easyield. Leicester.

P.5.—In old days books were rare and costly. Margins were then made wide so that they could be cut down on rebinding.