“Yo dawg,” the Pimp My Ride meme would start, “I heard you like Macs and books, so we put your MacBook inside a fake book so you can look like you’re carrying a crazy big book around!” That’s the pitch, essentially, behind TwelveSouth’s $80 BookBook, which uses a deliberately aged leather hardbound book as a facade for a zippered carrying case.
The spine says “Book Book,” and “Vol. XII,” a cute little reference to TwelveSouth itself, and you can choose between “Classic Black” (actually brown) or “Vibrant Red” versions, each in either 13-inch or 15-inch MacBook-ready sizes. Inside is a soft, velvety lining, with enough padding to keep your MacBook safe while it’s being carried around. Twin zippers have leather pulls that match the case.
Is BookBook going to keep someone from stealing your MacBook? Maybe, maybe not. Is it worth $80? Ditto. But as with the other TwelveSouth products released thus far, we have to say that we dig the idea and most of the execution. Little streaks of gold ink on the book and other small texture and stitching touches speak nicely to the distressed theme, and it’s really not hard to imagine giving one of these as a gift to someone who loves books. Both kinds. It’s a cute idea.