They All Say I've Met a Ghost


A handbound copy of the fan translation of They All Say I've Met a Ghost, a webnovel by Cyan Wings. You can read the translation by E. Danglars here.

Towards the end of They All Say I’ve Met a Ghost, Shen Jianguo fills Teacher Liu’s notebook with “some of the good things [he’d] encountered during his life.” So, I thought it would be fun to bind the novel and model it after said notebook.

In the novel, this is a haunted notebook bound in human skin. I happened to have a scrap of leather which I thought looked…maybe reasonable? I have no idea what it really is (it was a gift in a grab bag of fabric scraps) but considering it’s actually the back side of a gold-stamped fashion leather, I think it’s safe to say it’s not actually haunted. The back side had a few damaged spots, but in my opinion that adds to the effect.

Now apparently, Teacher Liu’s notebook just looks like a normal, classic old notebook, not obviously haunted. However nothing looks obviously haunted to our narrator; the pages could be oozing blood and he’d think it was a pity someone spilled their red ink. So I went ahead and gave it blood-red splatter painted edges. You know, a perfectly normal edge finishing technique.

This was my first time doing a softcover book like this (thank you bible re-covering youtube) and a level up in leatherwork for me. I made an oxford hollow for the first time, and it was my first time doing splatter edges as well.

Please note that this is a personal binding made for my own use and enjoyment and no money has been made from this project.


© 2023 E. Hyde