Tightbacks 
The following information is for students taking my class at the Garage School Annex. The following pictures show the two types of volumes you will need to bring to class to practice on. They are the hollowback and the tightback. For both types, the only restrictions are the book shouldn't be over 10" in height or over 1 1/2" thick and both boards should be in fairly good condition (the corners and edges can be mended and we'll go over that in class). Also, the leather should be fairly intact and not show overt signs of red rot (a reddish-dusty-powdery appearance) or have the top layer splitting away.
I suggest bringing books which are not too valuable or important to your collections (I only trust beginners luck so much and I don't want you to ruin a valuable book). I would suggest used bookstores or antique malls if you don't have these styles of bindings already. If you absolutely cannot one or both of these styles of bindings, please contact me and I will bring books for you to work on (of course the advantage to bringing your own is you can take them home with you as examples).
These are charaterized by a tunnel between the spine of the textblock and the spine of the cover. The spine is leather, but often the boards are paper or cloth or are done in the 3/4 style (with leather corners). Any style will do.
Oftentimes either the front or back hinge has failed and the spine flaps free.
Sometimes sections of the spine have fallen off as well.
Any of these examples, or even a hollowback which has lost its spine completely, are appropriate for this class.
These are an examples of a repaired hollowback.
Tightbacks, as the name implies, have the leather of the cover glued directly to the textblock. These are generally full leather volumes, but examples of marbled paper boards do exist.
The damage is usually along the hinge, with the boards partially or completely detached. Sometimes the endcaps are missing as well. We will learn how to reconstruct these.
This is what a finished repair might look like.
