There once was a girl who was hired to save damaged library books. She worked for her college library during her junior and senior year. Her work was never boring: one day, she might sew in loose sections of pages, the next day she might replace a torn spine, and still the next she might build a whole new cover for a badly damaged book. Sometimes, though, the books were just too damaged to save, and so they would be purged from the stacks and recycled…or, they would go home with this girl, who thought it so sad to see all that beautiful paper go to waste.
She became a full-time librarian after she finished graduate school, and even though her new library job was different, she still saved all those purged books she’d see sitting on that shelf, because no matter the library, there’s always a damaged book that needs a home.
Finally, her husband said to her “Um, honey, WHAT are we doing with all these old, falling-apart books?” and she realized…he might have a point.
She still finds homes for all those books because her librarian friends keep her well supplied with damaged titles. Now, though, instead of just packing them in boxes and putting them in her house and driving her husband crazy, she makes art with them.
The End.
P.S.
We almost forgot the best part of the story: she also uses only salvaged wood for all her artwork, and as a result, every year she saves almost 500 pounds of wood and paper from the landfill. And that’s a happy ending indeed.