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Necronomiconexmortis, roughly translated, the Book of the Dead. Inked in human blood and bound in human flesh it was never meant for the world of the living. The book awoke something in the woods, something evil . . .
- From Army of Darkness

Ok, so it ain't the Necronomicon, but someone in England found a book bound in human skin, which was apparently all the rage back in the day.

Ancient Book May Be Covered in Human Skin

LONDON - A 300-year-old book that appears to be bound in human skin has been found in northern England, police said Saturday.

The macabre discovery was made on a central street in Leeds, and officers said the ledger may have been dumped following a burglary.

Detectives were trying to trace its rightful owner and believe it may have been taken from a dwelling in the area.

Much of the text is in French, and it was not uncommon around the time of the French Revolution for books to be covered in human skin.

The practice, known as anthropodermic bibliopegy, was sometimes used in the 18th and 19th centuries when accounts of murder trials were bound in the killer's skin.

Anatomy books also were sometimes bound in the skin of a dissected cadaver. In World War II, Nazis were accused of using the skin from Holocaust victims to bind books.

In a brief statement, West Yorkshire police said the ledger, which contained handwriting in black ink, appears to date back to the 1700s, and they appealed to anyone who may be able to help identify the owners of the item to contact authorities.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/
2006/04/08/D8GS2FNG1.html

Now, that would have to be one hell of a good book to be bound in human skin. I am thinking something like The Joy of Golf or The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pirates . . . er . . . at least not anything by Amy Tan.

More on the Necronomicon from the Cthulhu wiki.