# How to Turn a Book into a Brick https://minguhongmfg.com/en/products/how-to-turn-a-book-into-a-brick Date: 2015-11-11 ## 1. Collect discarded books. They are not difficult to find in everyday life. Books left unread because of immature writing, careless editing, design that fails to correspond to the content in any way, boredom, or other reasons may lose their original function as they become trivets for hot dishes or pest-killing tools, and can be discarded at any time. Even this single sheet of instructions you are now reading may be among them. Paju Publishing Culture and Information Industrial Complex, commonly called Paju Book City and operated by the Book City Culture Foundation, is also a suitable place to find discarded books. On average, about 4.5 million books are made there each year, while a comparable number are discarded for reasons including typos, manufacturing defects, poor sales, and copyright violations. If you do not own a car, take care not to board bus 2200 to Paju Book City during commuting hours. Its schedule does not account for passenger numbers at different times of day, so you may find yourself standing for thirty minutes to over an hour among pale-faced planners, editors, and designers, along with Chinese tourists visiting the nearby luxury outlets. In Paju Book City, which aspires to “a true book culture” and “a city for the restoration of humanity,” you can easily find discarded books and also experience a situation in which a book is no longer a “book” but an “object composed of sheets of paper that merely takes up space.” ## 2. Remove the spine with a paper cutter, guillotine, knife, or your hands, then separate the pages. If the book was edited in Japan, first put on gloves and say in Japanese, “I will now remove the spine. Thank you for your cooperation,” consciously showing more courtesy than you would to other books. Coated parts, including the cover, and any adhesive remaining near the spine will not dissolve in the mixture, so inspect and remove them sheet by sheet. If you suddenly think, “Wait… why am I making a brick out of a book?”, you can sell the pages to a waste-paper collector for less than 100 won per kilogram. The collected pages are mainly shredded by specialists from the Third World who cannot read Hangeul and turned into recycled paper for making books—which may one day be discarded again. ## 3. Shred the pages with a document shredder or your hands, soak them in water for one to three hours, then blend them again. A paper-to-water ratio of 1:6 by weight is recommended. If you become thirsty after using the blender, take care not to immediately blend tomatoes or carrots into juice and drink it. If you have no blender, you can attach a mixing blade to an electric drill. Products by DEWALT, which always perform beyond their specifications, are recommended. The more thoroughly the pages are shredded, the less they will clump in the mixture. Use this stage to relieve whatever anger or stress you have felt toward books. ## 4. The basic ingredients of the mixture are: - Shredded book pages: 60 percent - Sand: 29 percent - Cement: 10 percent - Borax: 1 percent A high proportion of literature can be expected to yield literary bricks; academic books, academic bricks; practical books, practical bricks. Beware of a high proportion of state-issued textbooks or books ghostwritten by graduate students to fabricate certain professors’ research achievements, as these may yield useless bricks. Sea sand is recommended. Do not use river sand with a high soil content, as it does not mix well with cement. Quicklime or water in which ginkgo leaves have been boiled may replace borax, which acts as an insect repellent. Wear gloves when using quicklime, as it gives off heat on contact with water. Vary the ratios of the basic ingredients, or grind in poppies, pet food, love letters from a former lover, posters you dislike for a particular reason, talismans, sawdust, and so on, and you can expect the brick you want. ## 5. Put the mixture in a brick press, paper-log maker, or mold of the desired shape, and press downward to remove the water. If making a mold is difficult, use a food can with drainage holes punched in its base. The more water you remove, the shorter the drying time and the harder the brick—though not as hard as an ordinary brick. Remove the drained mixture without breaking it and dry it in a well-ventilated place for about two weeks. Creating artificial drying conditions, such as in a chili-pepper dryer or a motel room with a heated floor, can shorten the time to as little as three days. While it dries, take care not to listen to blues or pansori, or admire books that have won European book-design awards nearby. The mixture may remain damp long after two weeks. Still, pressing it every day with a long, hard object to check its dryness may be rude to the mixture. ## 6. You can now make a brick from a book that is light, sturdy—though not as sturdy as an ordinary brick—and rich in conversation material. As well as using it to construct space, a brick’s original function, you can use it as a campfire starter, a product to sell at a flea market, or a holiday gift. So there is little reason to be surprised or particularly proud if, one day, a curator of a large exhibition asks you for a brick to display. Especially if that exhibition is Typojanchi 2015. - [01.jpeg](https://minguhongmfg.com/media/pages/products/how-to-turn-a-book-into-a-brick/94e0c96309-1791638198/01.jpeg) - [02.jpeg](https://minguhongmfg.com/media/pages/products/how-to-turn-a-book-into-a-brick/a1db89be8e-1791638198/02.jpeg) - [03.jpeg](https://minguhongmfg.com/media/pages/products/how-to-turn-a-book-into-a-brick/fd67030da9-1791638200/03.jpeg) - [04.jpeg](https://minguhongmfg.com/media/pages/products/how-to-turn-a-book-into-a-brick/b1969a6625-1791638200/04.jpeg) - [05.jpeg](https://minguhongmfg.com/media/pages/products/how-to-turn-a-book-into-a-brick/d9ce1983d7-1791638201/05.jpeg) - [06.jpeg](https://minguhongmfg.com/media/pages/products/how-to-turn-a-book-into-a-brick/76945fd4a8-1791638201/06.jpeg) - [7-book-bricks__01@2x.jpg](https://minguhongmfg.com/media/pages/products/how-to-turn-a-book-into-a-brick/f7f5d79092-1791638202/7-book-bricks__01@2x.jpg) - [07.jpeg](https://minguhongmfg.com/media/pages/products/how-to-turn-a-book-into-a-brick/2a1fcd45f5-1791638202/07.jpeg) - [08.jpeg](https://minguhongmfg.com/media/pages/products/how-to-turn-a-book-into-a-brick/275dd70ef0-1791638203/08.jpeg) Tags: Typojanchi, PaTI, Choi Moon Kyung