Book Belt

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hagrid sends Harry a peculiar birthday gift: the Monster Book of Monsters, a textbook that attempts to bite anyone who tries to open it. Harry binds it with a belt, and the other students keep it shut with Spellotape. This Harry Potter moment came to mind when I spotted a new book thingamajig at a Daiso store in Singapore: the book belt.

It’s actually a glorified piece of patterned garter sewn together with a felt band, and I bought it primarily because I’m a sucker for all sorts of book paraphernalia (as you well know), and I only got to try it recently. For 2 SGD (standard Daiso price), you get a pack of two book bands (I gave one to my FFP seezter Ajie) that can fit both mass market paperbacks and trade paperbacks.

It actually proved to be useful for me, because I never go anywhere without a book in tow and tend to read books in transit (on the way to a meeting, waiting in reception areas, in line at the supermarket counter, etc.) then stuff them away in my bag.  Even as  careful as I am with books, sometimes the book falls open in my bag and one of the twenty-odd other items in the bag ends up getting wedged in it, or a corner gets dented, or worse, the cover gets crunched up (casualty: a book in my check-in luggage!).

I tried the book belt, and it effectively keeps the book securely shut, even when you stow it in your bag and shake it all around!  Then while you’re reading you can just pull it out and wear it on your wrist.

The drawback is that you can’t use it for thin paperbacks, because they won’t keep their shape with the book band on. But for the normal mass market paperback or trade paperback, it works fine.

I regret not buying more of these things, but it should be pretty easy to recreate and it should come out a lot cheaper too!  And you can make them for all sizes.

Or if you’re in a fix, I don’t see why you can’t use an elastic headband or a thick rubber band.

***

book belt, 4/5 stars

[amazonify]::omakase::300:250[/amazonify]