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Chopping up books when they're physically too big
- fifilura 27d agoOr - don't choose 850 page books for a book club? You may love it, but your friend may hate it. Keep it for yourself.
- vasco 27d agoHaving hundreds of books at home and being a great enjoyer of old books, fuck off.
- biggerben 27d agoIt’s the jaunty howdy-doody tone whilst describing acts of desecration that gets me. My wife assumed it must have been a joke post!
- voidifremoved 26d agoI would be 100% behind a version of Infinite Jest where the footnotes are in a separate volume.
- sriram_malhar 27d agoI just did this for the first time. <aside/>I lost interest in programming for pleasure (thank you LLMs), so decided to spend a few years learning all the prerequisites to understand the General Theory of Relativity. It is so nice to get back to learning from printed matter. The contrast is great. The ability to flip pages back and forth to scan past material is much better than an ebook experience (like referring to a figure on a different page). Best of all, I don't get distracted or tempted to open up a browser window and start doomscrolling. The heft is oddly reassuring too.
- marcus_holmes 27d agoOr, and I'm just pointing out the obvious, read the book on an ebook reader and maintain the wallpaper value of the original dead tree book.
- utopiah 27d agoAt this point if you don't care at all for the book itself as an object just buy an xteink-x3 with CrossPoint or PocketBook then install Koreader.
- lateatdesk 27d agoI don't think cutting it up means he doesn't care about the book when he's going to the trouble of rebinding the pieces so he can keep reading on paper.
- philips 27d agoThis is exactly why I love e-books as an adult. As a kid I loved "pocket books"[1] because they didn't make my hand feel weak trying to hold them on a road trip and I could fit a few in my backpack. But, obviously, not every work was published in a pocket book format. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_Books https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_Books
- jrmg 27d agoThese are more generically known as ‘mass market paperbacks’ - and are sadly basically extinct: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/end-mass-market-paperbacks-070000923.html https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/end-mass-market-pap... Last year, ReaderLink, the country's largest distributor of books to airports, pharmacies and big-box stores, announced that it would no longer carry mass markets. The books can still be found in some places, but "as a format, I would say it's pretty much over," Ivan Held, the president of publishing imprints Putnam, Dutton and Berkley, said to the Times. I too mourn them - much more of a convenient size than the now ubiquitous ‘trade paperback’ - but we’re obviously in a small minority.
- SmasherEpilepti 27d agoAt that rate, you might as well buy and use an e-reader instead. It really doesn't get any more comfortable in the hands than a light device like a Kobo or whatever one you prefer.
- davisr 27d agoI chop my books and read them on my reMarkable tablet. It really doesn't get any better. https://www.davisr.me/projects/books/ https://www.davisr.me/projects/books/
- SmasherEpilepti 27d agoThat's cool and all, but I generally prefer my text reflowable, and find PDF reading on any not-huge e-reader to be a pain in the ass. It's worth it for things that are rich in figures and formatting (like House of Leaves, many textbooks, comics and manga, etc), but for the typical novel or non-fiction book, I really do want just text and the most minimal formatting and layout instructions possible, so I can configure to my own comfort, not to whatever the publisher has decided they want me to see.
- davisr 27d agoYou must have forgotten the point of this thread was about chopping books.
- SmasherEpilepti 27d agoIt seemed to me more about taking control of things to read in ways that are most comfortable and convenient. I was already off the topic of specifically chopping up books.
- Dylan16807 27d agoYou replied to someone comparing it to e-readers; you do not get to complain they say more about e-readers.
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- drayfield 27d agoI hate this. Of course it's your property, you do what you want with it. Do your own illustrations, annotate with abandon, get out the red pen for editing practise... But for me, I love nothing more than reading a book so big that I practically live in it.
- Rendello 27d agoI recently wanted to try one of Kató Lomb's [1][2] preferred language-learning methods: getting a book in a foreign language and reading it (and re-reading it), figuring out words and phrases as if it's a big puzzle and writing them in the margins. From her book "How I Learn Languages" (1970): > I recommend buying your own books for language learning. They can be spiced with underlines, question marks, and exclamation points; they can be thumbed and dog-eared, plucked to their essential core, and annotated so that they become a mirror of yourself. > What shall you write in the margins? Only the forms and phrases you have understood and figured out from the context. > Ignore what you can’t immediately understand. If a word is important, it will occur several times and explain itself anyway. Base your progress on the known, not the un- known. The more you read, the more phrases you will write in the margins. The relationship that develops between you and the knowledge you obtain will be much deeper than if you had consulted the dictionary automatically. The sense of achievement provides you with an emotional-affective charge: You have sprung open a lock; you have solved a little puzzle. I can't really bring myself to write in the books themselves though, so I've been using separate paper. It feels wrong, even in a cheap book, like I'm defiling it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kat%C3%B3_Lomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kat%C3%B3_Lomb https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Kat%C3%B3+Lomb https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Kat%C3%B3+Lomb
- robocat 27d agoI'm no polyglot, but talking and reading are very different skills. My personal working theory: Native speakers learn to speak first, then they learn to read and write. From talking with high-level ESOL speakers, those that learned from written material have some very strange patterns of mistakes you can hear in their English - where they've programmed their pronunciation incorrectly very early on with basic mistakes. Although English is an outlier here. Because English native speakers learn lots of different ways to manage how speaking and spelling are different. Plus because making speaking mistakes after learning words in books is such a social status mistake. Personally I think if you want to learn a language, the ideal is with someone who corrects all mistakes, as though one is a baby. Although it is difficult to find this even when one can spend months in a foreign country. Not everyone feels comfortable correcting an adult. The people that have learned English that I have spoken with that are the best all have a common trait: they've lived in a country and they MIMIC. The most amazing was a hippy Japanese guy: I remember one sentence where he shifted in the middle from broad East London to a strong Aussie accent due to where he learned the words. I learnt conversational Spanish when I was 30. Next attempt will be 2-3 months immersed Korean as a middle aged guy so I'm looking forward to trying out my opinions!
- globular-toast 27d agoI would never do this normally, but when I walked the Camino Primitivo the guidebook contained other routes so was more than twice as big as it needed to. Weight matters so I tore out the bit I needed. I read most fiction these days on my Kobo. I prefer physical volumes when I'm sitting at a desk.
- prydt 27d agoI came to a similar realization recently. I used to care so much about how pristine my books looked and then I realized that some of my favorite books I have found in used bookstores are ones which are written all over and have a well-worn feel to them. I now annotate all my books with pencil and also write my name in them. I love seeing a history of who's owned a given book when I open the front cover and see a name and phone number.
- jimnotgym 27d agoI once read that the only way you can actually damage a book, is by not reading it.
- rogerrogerr 27d agoFire is pretty effective too, in my experience.
- bluGill 27d agoFloods are pretty bad for them too. I have some books drying now, some paper is really bad about getting wet while others are okay.
- zem 27d agothey're not exactly thrilled by termites either. lost a lot of my grandparents' books to that.
- jimnotgym 26d agoI think someone following the mantra I repeated, would say that you are thinking too much about the physical copy of the book and less about the book as a collection of words. Buy another
- WillAdams 27d agoWell, one can damage a hardcover by not opening it properly the first time: https://www.reddit.com/r/lifehacks/comments/7sry7v/open_a_hard_cover_book_without_breaking_the_spine/ https://www.reddit.com/r/lifehacks/comments/7sry7v/open_a_ha... (which was a lesson in 2nd grade, when we got our first-ever hardcover textbooks)
- OroPla 27d agoHere I thought this was about shredding your books and going completely digital to save space.
- deleted 27d ago[deleted]
- usewik 27d agoI do like when books are wrapped, but to the idea of separating them into parts, I would say probably not worth it. Most books I find myself reading lately are pretty dense, and so my focus is on fitting material in my mind and imagination, i.e. into Gardens of the Moon right now, and I am switching between audiobook, small paperback and companion Claude code wrote for me to help me keep track and visualize what's happening. But hey, if it helps you focus on reading, and you own the book, why not? I do think it is better to just go to your library and work through what they have to offer, without buying the books, so that, hopefully leaves slicing off the table.
- deleted 27d ago[deleted]
- froobius 27d agoI think it's fun. You'll also get the IKEA effect helping you to appreciate the book more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA_effect
- specproc 27d agoI just did a little sick
- spudlyo 27d agoThis seems like a lot of work for not a huge payoff. I get that the feel and experience of a physical book has a certain nostalgia, but for me, I'd just leave the big monster on the shelf and grab an epub from Anna's Archive. You have already ensured the author and publisher get paid, you might as well read on an e-reader, which is in my opinion superior in nearly every way to a physical book. Ebooks sync across devices, allow for a customized presentation, quick dictionary lookups, bookmarks, etc. The only slight edge I'll give to a physical book is the ability to easily make marginal notes in pencil -- I realize that ebooks have this feature too, it's just not as immediate or as frictionless.
- stronglikedan 27d agoThe problem with ebooks is that you cannot be 100% certain that you're reading the original text. That can only be preserved in physical copies. That's why the destructive book scanning for AI is such a tragedy. There's already plenty of examples of original texts being surreptitiously revised, and it happens with videos too.
- duskwuff 27d ago> The problem with ebooks is that you cannot be 100% certain that you're reading the original text. That's equally true of print books. Misprints happen.
- krupan 27d agoNot the same thing. The kindle ebook you "purchased" could have different text each time you open it up. A movie you stream could be different every time.
- ash_091 27d agoReading your comment I wonder if the parent comment is different each time, because "does the ebook text change reading-to-reading" is not the question being discussed.
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- gowld 27d agoQuick, someone make a startup to print chopped-up-books on demand.
- themanmaran 27d agoI have very fond memories of reading hitchhikers guide to the galaxy with a friend in highschool. The book was old and had already started falling apart, and so we just broke it up into chapters and would pass it to the next person one chapter at a time.
- ArbriT 27d agoI am so confused
- DavidVoid 27d agoI wish more books would come in the same format as the Macmillan Collector's Library series of books. They're tiny hardback books with thin pages. I just checked my copy of Moby Dick, it's about 770 pages, but the book has a very pocket-able size of just 15.6×10×3.5 cm (6.2×4×1.4").
- omoikane 27d agoI wonder why the publishers insist on selling thick books like that. The books I read tend to come in multiple volumes, and it's not like I would finish it all at once so I just need to carry at most one or two volumes.
- skyberrys 27d agoWhen I was a broke college student I would buy thicker books to get best value.
- mrweasel 27d agoThere's definitively something weird marketing bullshit going on. I have a few books in an old print and a new print. The new print have larger letter and insane margins and line separation. The larger letters are great, if your eyes aren't the best anymore, I just don't get why half the page is margins. You can have a book printed in the 1970s and it will be half the thickness, and shorter height. It has the exact same content as a modern book. At some point we went from the average number of pages being somewhere around 200-250 to over 400. You don't actually get more words, they just take up more pages. Paper type might also make a difference, I have 60 year old books with ~250 page, they are half the thickness of a modern murder mystery with around 400 pages, and the old book is hardback, the new one is paperback. I think it's vanity, people would rather be seen reading a brick of a book, regardless of the actual content. Even if the old hardbacks are easier to handle and carry in your backpack.
- madewithdrama 27d agoNice comment section. Is it necessary to bring up ebooks whenever print books are mentioned? I haven't heard a worthwhile opinion on the matter in at least 15 years. Anyways, cool post.
- phoronixrly 27d agoNo, it's necessary only when the alternative is to mutilate the print edition...
- juiceland 27d agoIf the gutter is wide enough, you can have them rebound with spiral binding. This is incredible useful for holding or putting a book flat. I did this to all my textbooks in college.
- GolfPopper 27d agoThis is probably just a personal quirk, but I despise spiral bindings. I hate the feel of them. They never hold together. They catch on everything and come apart. Pages get torn far more easily. They make the books - if you can even call spiral-bound stacks if paper that - more difficult to organize. They suck.
- bluGill 27d agoI hate my non-spiral bound music books - they never sit well on a music stand. However for all other books I agree, spiral sucks.
- AdamTReineke 27d agoI don't understand why Cracking The Coding Interview never published a two volume spiral bound book. It's the perfect candidate: it's huge, you're referencing two different sections regularly, and you stay on one page for quite a while. I never ended up doing it to my copy though.
- dinkleberg 27d agoGiving yourself the old playstation experience. Please insert Disc 2.
- dan_p 27d ago[flagged]
- starkparker 27d agoOne of the more unintentional "reject modernity, embrace tradition" posts on this site. In a world where this catches on someone will come up with the bright idea of serialized novels again. It's like a payment plan for a book! More watercooler moments waiting for the next volume! Authors incorporating fan feedback between volumes! Imagine all the Dickensian possibilities.
- pfdietz 27d ago> someone will come up with the bright idea of serialized novels again You mean, like on Reddit? ;)
- mrec 27d agoPlenty of webfiction out there which is exactly this. It does tend to fall into the trap of going on forever though.
- bluGill 27d agoThere is a lot of web fiction out there that would be better if the authors had written "the end" a few years ago.
- chrismorgan 27d agoPrinting is a good constraint against getting too long, both the physical and cost constraints. Though the Harry Potter series in full still managed to reach a million words. For another comparison, the Bible is around three quarters of a million words, and tends to use special paper (20–40gsm/30–50 micron) so it works in one volume. Handwriting is also a good idea for encouraging keeping lengths down; typing and dictation make verbosity too easy; and as for LLMs, words are clearly far too cheap there.
- shevy-java 27d agoThat advice makes no sense. In fact - many old huge books are epic. I remember in the early 1990s we had a huge book about history. It detailed each year with the most important events. I loved reading in it. Even today I like it. Unfortunately I am also now part of the digital-only guys, so I have not bought a hardcopy paper books in quite a while (excluding one exception for Raymond Feist, but by and large I only read .pdf files nowadays). So I store things in .pdf files mostly. I also hate .epub files and refuse to use them. I still have many old books here, but new books rarely come up and I only keep books I find interesting or important or I may re-read. For instance I have one small hardcopy of 1984; I think it is an important book. And a few more like that. But I barely have any new paper books. I don't presently have any really huge book. Not sure what I will do should I inherit huge books. On the one hand, having them is kind of cool, but I don't want to keep them in a library or shelf either, so ... I will probably not use it. But I would not chop up any book, not even on a first april. It just seems totally pointless and also defeats the point of having huge books. Huge books are kind of cool. Not practical but cool.
- goda90 27d agoI split a Spanish-English dictionary in half so I could carry around just the English to Spanish part to look up the right words while living in a Spanish-speaking country. In the other direction, I got pretty good at guesstimating the meaning of unfamiliar words based on context and cognate roots, or at least I could get the vibes of what the person was telling me.
- ventura49 27d agoI feel like we’ve been hit by one of Michael O. Church’s troll agents. 1. Obsession with massive books. 2. High-value target (this community.) 3. Obviously bad idea that some people will treat as an earnest suggestion. 4. Oblique commentary on bad behavior by AI companies (destructive scanning of rare books.)
- _carbyau_ 27d agoAt it's heart, this post is: if you own it, do what you want with it. For a big book, cutting it up might be desired. Even though book lovers everywhere decry such a move, it's their book. Obviously there is zero resale value for the book, but I have never sold a book I owned so that wouldn't bother me.
- onecommentman 27d agoI have, on two occasions, actually tossed a book in the trash rather than have someone else stumble upon it. Arguably worse than physical mutilation and I consider myself a book lover. And, for several others, I have physically cut out and disposed of offending chapters or introductions using the same physical technique as the article suggests. Deeply emotionally satisfying, and not an option available for DRM e-books, as far as I know. And again, a book lover.
- _carbyau_ 26d agoI too have come across few things in my life that were so useless/junk as to wipe from the face of the earth. Few though. > not an option available for DRM e-books One such instance for me was a computer game. I uninstalled it and ensured the offending files were securely written over. Such things were possible with spinning rust storage. Nowadays with solid state drives I don't know how to target my vindication to that degree.
- NoidFonsense 26d agoI've already done this in my own life. I read dune by cutting the paperback into 3 books, one for each part. I didn't like that it was so thick, but it was a small book dimensionally. Plus it was just a cheap used paperback that would be read once. I dont like e-readers, i like to dog-ear the pages and stuff
- bithammerthunde 27d agoAre AI companies trying to poison the search index? Like Boris Johnson did when he had fun times with a model on the campaign bus, then did a bizarre interview when he claimed he made model buses! https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/26/mesmerising-boris-johnsons-bizarre-model-buses-claim-raises-eyebrows https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/26/mesmerising...
- totetsu 27d agoI heard this is a common tactic in news forum discussions too. When you don't want people talking about the substance of the post, then you mention something like how the site is hosted on wix which supports the IDF, and derail the conversation.
- benhurmarcel 27d agoIt doesn't work that much on sites which organize comments in a tree, like HN or Reddit. You can just fold that part of the thread.
- esperent 27d agoDamn, did news articles ~7 years ago really just consist of a series of embedded tweets? It feels familiar but also kind of jarring.
- Henchman21 27d agoYes, and I recall at the time being exasperated by it -- "Twitter is NOT NEWS it is children yelling across the playground at each other!"
- wodenokoto 27d agoThey still do, to the best of my knowledge, although they have started incorporation reddit discussion too.
- esperent 26d ago
- Zebfross 27d agoI love my kindle for this exact reason. I never shy away from a book that's "too big" anymore because I have no idea how big it is!
- deleted 27d ago[deleted]
- Isamu 27d ago>If you read in bed, it’s going to tire your arms out, trying to hold this giant tome over your head. Eh? What sort of a pretend-reader does that? You must read nothing more than a page at a time. I have the Diary of Pepys beside the bed and it’s the excerpts, at only about 1000 pages. Enjoying it tremendously.
- imzadi 27d agoI used to do this with textbooks so that I didn't have to carry around the whole book all semester. But, I would take it to staples and have the binding chopped off and have it three hole punched, then keep it in a binder.
- GarnetFloride 27d agoI like physical copies as they can't be remotely deleted, altered, or slapped full of ads. I do enjoy a very limited number of hardcovers from my most favorite stories from my favorite authors. Great for curling up in bed with. Paperback is fine, even in the trade paperback sizes now. Though some authors like Brandon Sanderson don't make novels but bookzillas, and I've thought more than once of getting used copies to split for easier carrying.
- meindnoch 27d agoNext up: cutting your vinyl records into concentric circles, so you won't have to carry the weight of the songs you don't like!
- emptybits 27d agoThe word concentric reminded me of sort of an inverse idea in vinyl. Equally cool IMO: concentric grooves. Rush did it. Kate Bush did it. Probably more recent examples. It works like this: drop the needle at a different starting point and the whole record plays through a different groove. Cool, eh?
- meindnoch 27d agoSee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multisided_record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multisided_record
- black_13 27d ago[dead]
- WalterBright 27d agoI use an ereader a lot. They have glaring lacks that nobody seems to have addressed: 1. Two page layout. This gives you more context when reading. 2. Imperfect printing. Older books have imperfect impressions of letters. 3. Tan colored background, which varies across the page and from page to page. Grey is so sterile. 4. Cannot stick a thumb on a page and flip forward and backward with your other thumb.
- sfRattan 27d agoOn the flipside, if I fall asleep reading my ereader, I almost never lose my page. It just goes to sleep too, with the last open page ready to resume.
- WalterBright 27d agoAnd the ereader doesn't leave my fingers smelling like mildew!
- SmasherEpilepti 27d agoThese are valid. I vastly prefer physical books for things like academic and reference material (and TTRPG books) because of 4 in particular. Many kinds of books, it's very important to be able to flip quickly between arbitrary points, using your digits as quick temporary marks. I still prefer ereaders for novels and most non-fiction books, though.
- WalterBright 27d agoEreaders are better suited for novels, but not so good for reference books.
- mcphage 27d ago> Two page layout. This gives you more context when reading. That was exactly the reason why I tried out the 12.9” iPad Pro back in like 2016. I used that for 8 years, and now am on my second.
- 1899-12-30 26d ago
- IvanLudvig 27d agoso this is why people buy books! I mostly read ones from the library
- CircuitSeuss 27d agoChaotic neutral behavior.
- anigbrowl 27d agoIt’s going to tire out your hands to hold up an 850-page book for the time it takes to read an 850-page book. If you read in bed, it’s going to tire your arms out, trying to hold this giant tome over your head. If you can't figure out how to read a large book in comfort that seems like a you problem. It's up to you what you do with (or rather, to) your books but don't ask me to applaud you for being clever.
- __rito__ 27d agoWell, I won't do it, as although books are mainly for reading, they also are beautiful products that I am not willing to destroy. They also look great on shelves and work as decor. I have faced the problem of books being too big. What I do is I just get an additional copy on my Kindle. For classics this is free, for newer ones, the price is one-sixth to one-third. This is justified because the need is rare. I read the physical book during the daytime at my home. I travel with the Kindle and take it to my bed.
- hingler36 27d agoI remember a story where some big wall climbers were stuck waiting for a storm to pass, and one of them had brought a paperback book to pass the time. Once he'd finished the first half he cut it in half so the other climbers could have something to do during the wait.
- akk0 27d agoThis seems rather silly, but I admire the audacity, it's a statement in itself.
- cyberrock 27d agoThis does really seem like satire, but in case anyone wants to do this, most (all?) spine glue like PVA can typically be melted by a standard hairdryer. I find that method to be slightly more gentle.
- SoupBread 27d agoIs it easier to do this than to hold your big book and read it?
- dweinus 27d agoDon't forget to sort by color when you're done!
- cgearhart 27d ago20ish years ago I complained to my college roommate that my math book was too big. He asked if I was gonna sell it back, and I said I couldn’t—they had a new edition out, so mine was worthless. Cut it, he said. It was something I had never considered. Not for a moment. Books were sacred to me. Cut one? Blasphemy. But he was right. And so I cut it. And it fixed all of my complaints. What I learned is that some folks have a different mindset; they see the world as something to be shaped around themselves, rather than seeing themselves as something that should be shaped to fit the world. That’s been a useful lesson sometimes.
- nitin_flanker 27d ago"What I learned is that some folks have a different mindset; they see the world as something to be shaped around themselves, rather than seeing themselves as something that should be shaped to fit the world. That’s been a useful lesson sometimes." It indeed is. Thanks for putting it in words. I think I will try to adopt this mindset about certain things in life.
- HSO 27d agocue https://youtu.be/kYfNvmF0Bqw?t=12 https://youtu.be/kYfNvmF0Bqw?t=12 :)
- gabaix 26d agoNote that voluntarism can equally help or hurt. When it fits, it may bring high achievement and self realization. When misplaced, it may bring suffering and disillusionment. One has to develop a grasp at when to use it.
- cgearhart 26d agoI hadn’t seen this before, but he’s near the top of my list as an example of this. One the common characteristics I see of people with this mindset is that they have high risk tolerance. Things are replaceable, and they feel safe exploring that trade space.
- BiteCode_dev 26d ago
- sleepy_keita 27d agoThis is done by default in Japan. Most long books are sold as different volumes, parts, etc. At first I didn't really like it (especially because you'd have to buy both Vol.1 and 2 for the whole thing), but it makes sense if you're going to be bringing books around with you.
- shoobiedoo 27d agoI've gotten really used to it too. I find myself reading more because I can carry most books in the side pocket of my shorts or whatever.
- robotmay 26d agoJapanese manga is kinda interesting in that regard too - they're noticeably more diminutive than Western publications of the same manga, usually, and often on quite nice quality paper. They're usually paperbacks with dust jackets too, which you don't see too often over here in the UK. I have both Japanese and English copies of a few of the same manga and I do much prefer the feel of the Japanese ones, although as someone who bought them to learn the language (and failed, again) they can sometimes be quite challenging in terms of font size.
- rob74 27d agoIf you think this book is too big, I'd like to remind you that there are one-volume paperback editions of The Lord Of The Rings (I have this one: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/r-tolkien-lord-rings-1993-uk-one-4657510486 https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/r-tolkien-lord-rings-...) with 1100+ pages.
- firmretention 26d agoI think War and Peace is the longest book I've ever read. Most editions have 1300-1400 pages.
- PowerElectronix 27d agoJust don't have weak hands.
- NoidFonsense 26d agoDo you work out at the library?
- PowerElectronix 26d agoWhere else?
- Tanoc 27d agoAlways assume that something you have, someone will want it after you've had your use of it. They do not want a recreation or approximation with all of it's flaws and compromises, something that provides an altered experience or a skewed view. They want the original. If you treat something as disposable that is a disregard for anyone but yourself. Someone may want your old jacket, your old car, your old book. This consideration for those who come after you is the way things survived, how family heirlooms and sacred relics came to be. It's the idea behind the phrase "Plant a sapling you may never sit in the shade of." That's what machine generation tries to devalue and bury. Infinite recreations, infinite approximations, with no original to compare to. The perfect tool of someone who wishes to create a reality of their own bias rather than one that is a result of all who came before them.
- blightful 27d agoWell this is fun. Yesterday I actually searched for information like this. I decided I wanted to turn the typical 2 volume set of paperback book of the new sun into 4 volumes. I got the first book, shadow and claw and I cut it in half and have been working out how I will rebind it. I like the covers from the european release so I found the art and have been working on making them the right size and adding a spine title. I plan to print that, attach to cardstock, laminate and bind it in with tape and see how it works out. Maybe this article will give me ideas. These volumes are not huge or anything but I thought it would be a fun project and maybe I will do more for other things. Maybe chop up the unabridged count of monte cristo. That thing is ridiculous.
- gumby 27d agoYes, I remember seeing those double editions come out and thinking they were too large! I bought the volumes as they came out so luckily didn’t have to deal with that problem. Some, like dickens, just write too long (though he had an excuse, being paid by the word, and in many cases being paid as he worked). Pynchon and Stephenson too. But it feels like Wolfe kept his books short, or at least shorter than they probably started out!
- albert_e 27d agoChunking strategy taken literally. Hmm.
- gumby 27d agoThrough hikers are used to an extreme version of this: tearing the pages out and burning them as you go. I am more of a random-access tease but weight is weight.
- erelong 26d agoThis is a no-no for some of us, who like to keep books as"mint" as possible; it was even a struggle to get in to bending spines on paperbacks to read them Nevertheless I could see doing this with old books where the pages are aleady coming out Also I might enjoy the digital version of this, breaking up a PDF into smaller bite-sized chapters into a folder
- ramses0 26d agoIf you're into bookbinding (it's great fun! /s?) what you're doing is effectively making smaller "text blocks". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookbinding#text-block https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookbinding#text-block Cover => recto/verso => Endleaf => Textblock{ signatures... } => ...then back to endleaf + cover like a sandwich. I started with cereal boxes and old wrapping paper and have graduated to fancier wrapping paper and bookbinding board (stiffer, like matte-board). The great benefit of doing something like this is being able to glue one of those cool ribbons into the spine for use as a bookmark!
- WorseIsBetter 26d ago[flagged]
- foxyv 26d agoI wish I had thought of this with my Physics textbook. I had to re-bind it once anyways when I left it on the top of my car. I could have just cut it up then.
- grouchomarx 26d agoGreat for backpacking too. Always feels like sacrilege but what can you do
- josefritzishere 25d ago[dead]