Is there anyway to get programming books in a spiral bound format?

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+9 Q:

Is there anyway to get programming books in a spiral bound format?

I have a lot of programming books that I like to read while at the computer. However, it's hard to hold the book open and type at the same time, or at least do both comfortably.

I get open source books printed on Lulu.com with a spiral binding so they lay flat, but I can't just go to Barnes and Nobles or Borders and pick up spiral books. Is there anyway to get programming books in a spiral bound format? I'm specifically interested in O'Reilly books.

+1 A:

I have a different approach. Get a second widescreen monitor, rotate it into portrait mode and now get ebook versions of your favorite programming books.

You now have a full page view of the book on one monitor and your IDE on the other. Works a treat.

Joe 2009-07-10 01:14:10

Ah the infamous second monitor response... There is something to be said about a physical book though; I can't read an e-book on my commute (and I hate the Kindle so please don't suggest that either)

samoz 2009-07-10 01:16:42

I think there's a growing trend for programming book publishers to provide an ebook version with the physical book, so you could always use the physical book for your commute and stay digital in front of the computer

Joe 2009-07-10 01:20:45

+4 A:

I have a friend who used to have the same problem with music books (books of sheet music, not books about music). She would take the book to Kinko's and they would re-bind it for her. I don't know how much it costs but I remember thinking that it was a pretty good deal.

MatrixFrog 2009-07-10 01:15:41

How was the quality of the rebinding? I'd be ok with getting it rebound, but not if it destroys the pages or looks crappy.

samoz 2009-07-10 01:34:33

It seemed perfectly fine, as far as I could tell, but I don't know if she used it on anything thicker than maybe a quarter inch. I assume they can do bigger ones though -- just use bigger spirals.

MatrixFrog 2009-07-10 06:54:58

+2 A:

You're best bet is to call up a local bookbinder in your area and ask if they'll rebound books to spiral binding for you. Check your local campus bookbinder or FedEx Office (fka Kinko's), for example.

Jason 2009-07-10 01:16:19

+1 A:

This requires a hacksaw and a spiral binding machine.

Or, alternatively, there are devices that can hold your book open for you. My wife has one for her cookbooks - basically an angled flat surface with two spring-loaded arms to hold the two half of the books against that surface.

It's an el-cheapo thing you can pick up from any homeware shop.

paxdiablo 2009-07-10 01:18:04

+3 A:

A lot of the recent books have electronic copies available to purchasers of the book which you could get printed and bound.

Steve Temple 2009-07-10 01:22:28

Is this legal? Would publishing it privately on a service such as Lulu.com be against the rules/license?

samoz 2009-07-10 01:28:44

I'm not sure, but if you bought the book and it had an ebook download I would assume printing it out for your own use would be fine.

Steve Temple 2009-07-10 10:59:55

Interesting... I'll take a look into that. I know that O'Reilly only gives you a free 45-day trial to Safari, and no real way to print Safari off, so we'll see.

samoz 2009-07-10 11:21:35

And most Open Source or Free docs can be treated the same way.

dmckee 2009-07-10 17:20:23

I've been using an O'Reilly Safari e-book subscription and it works quite well if you have a second monitor. What sold me is that Safari offers books from dozens of publishers now, including Manning, Wiley, Addison-Wesley, Prentice-Hall, Que, Sams, Oracle, Sun, and Cisco.

You do lose the feel of paper, but it takes less than a minute to start reading any one of over 7,000 technical titles. And of course you get text search, and you won't wind up with shelves of outdated books in your basement.

Safari has a free, time-limited trial, and there are various subscription levels depending on your needs and budget. Perhaps you can convince your company to buy a group subscription.

Jim Ferrans 2009-07-10 03:18:11

+1 A:

I've had books rebound at Kinkos (FedEx Office) too. The quality was great.

Warren Pena 2009-07-10 03:21:41

What kind of pricing did that run you, if you recall?

STW 2009-07-10 03:22:56

It's been too long for me to remember the exact price, but I recall it being expensive enough that you wouldn't want to have it done to your whole collection, but cheap enough that getting your most used books rebound isn't unreasonable. I believe it's priced based on the page count and size of the book.

Warren Pena 2009-07-10 03:42:59

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Is there anyway to get programming books in a spiral bound format?

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