I’ve been really busy this month, so I’m feeling some casual blogging. Question: why don’t origami books take a page from music books? It’s a pun, because I’m talking about book bindings.

Music books are designed to stay open, because you can’t very well hold the pages open while performing. Origami is likewise an activity that requires the use of hands while also looking at the page. You see what I’m saying? Origami books pose a problem that has already been solved in music.

Music books come in a few different varieties. There are small books that are essentially stapled together. Larger books come with rings or spirals. And of course there’s the classic solution, no bindings at all, just put them in a trapper keeper, or stuff them in a folder, or leave them lying around in loose disorganized stacks. Problem solved?

But blogging has ruined me in a particular way. I can’t just ask inane questions anymore. I have to do my due diligence and actually look up answers to inane questions.

Apparently ring/spiral bindings, also known as coil bindings, are more expensive and less durable. As someone at the origami convention put it, origamists are really cheap because they can get hours of entertainment from a simple sheet of paper.

The staple method is known as saddle stitch binding.  It only works with smaller books and doesn’t leave room for the title on the book’s spine.  It also doesn’t entirely solve the problem of keeping the book open (to the musician’s frequent chagrin).

Aaaand I suppose in music you need to be looking at the page continuously while making a time sensitive performance, while origami diagrams just need occasional reference.