Oh, this is so great. 😍

About 25 years ago, I saw a friend who worked at Penguin Books take a bread knife to a fat book for precisely this reason. I went on to become a book designer, and this made a big impression because it helped me to see that people who work with books generally see them as practical objects to be used and enjoyed, more than to be revered. 

I read The Power Broker, then all seven volumes of In Search of Lost Time, and was starting Infinite Jest. I got really bad tendonitis in the wrist of my left hand due to how I held those tomes.

I should have either been less precious about reading physical books or about keeping them in one piece. 

I’m better now but it took months to have full range of motion again without severe pain.

i'm a somewhat old school guy, as in i appreciate that there is value in the way it all was. 

That being said, i really don't see the value of a physical book versus an e-ink reader. i see it as part of the portfolio of things that enables us live in smaller spaces. we have thinner TVs, less paperwork, less books, smaller/no stereo, etc. 

Yes! And you know which books are always too big? Travel guides. In fact, you probably stopped buying them because of how big they are. Instead you walk around a foreign country just staring at your phone all day. You're on vacation, you silly goose! 

But guess what? Cut it up. Carve the Bologna section out of that big ol' Italy book. Fold it in half and stick it in your pocket. The area map usually ends up right on top.

Sure, look stuff up on your phone the day before. But write it in the margin. I know, I know, travel guides are still lame. But you know what's even more lame? Google Maps.

Horrifying! 😆 (Except for travel guides.  I agree with ZZZ, I tear those things up all the time.)

From a 2009 KDO post on How to Read Infinite Jest:

Physically, Infinite Jest is a large book: 2.2 inches thick and, according to Amazon.com, has a shipping weight of 3.2 pounds. Some readers have found it useful to rip the book in half for easier reading on the subway or on the beach. If you do this, you also need to tear the footnotes from the back half and tape them to front half. This technique has the side effect of giving you the appearance of A Very Serious Reader of Infinite Jest, which will either keep onlookers’ questions to a minimum or maximum, depending on the onlooker.

My grandad used to tear out the pages as he read them and toss them in the fire. He said he never needed a bookmark! Meanwhile I read so carefully so I never break the spine of a book. 

Uh, get a Kindle?

I’m barely capable of bringing myself to making notes in books in pencil.  

This is actually pretty common in Japan (where I lived for 4 years), except the publishers do the cutting for you! I’m guessing it’s because everyone rides trains all the time, but you can get books in tiny format with thin pages, making them light and ultraportable, and they even sell larger books pre-divided into separate sections or acts, nicely boxed together for later archiving on your bookshelf. Such a contrast to the US, which is uniquely obsessed with large, heavy hardcovers. The big tomes you see at American Barnes & Noble bookstores aren’t nearly as popular anywhere else in the world. (I know a smidge about this because I work in publishing.) Publishers have tinkered with more portable formats (ever hear of Bookshots?) but they refuse to catch on. I always wondered why. Maybe it could be as simple as the US being so car centric?

I love this conceptually, but I read library books almost exclusively. Also I like a chonky old tome that lies open on its own so I can knit while I read. Also I have an e-reader for portability, but again, only for library e-books. If I buy a book it's probably one I've already read and wanted to add to my collection. I'm a bit of a cheapskate — why spend money on a book you might not like? 

Anyway it's cool how different people are different in how they relate to their things

I understand this but as a book collector, it makes me twitch. Granted my collection is antiquarian and this is about mass market books, but it still makes me twitch. 

I have a fair amount of books on Kindle just for sheer convenience, but I love my signed first editions and hard-to-find old paperbacks - not all of which are available as ebooks). So, as a book collector, this absolutely horrifies me (I feel you @KitchenBeard). That said, I can't really argue against it, especially for massive tomes (looking at you, Stephen King's The Stand Complete and Uncut Edition). 

I once turned an old upright player piano into a bar, which was an interesting project and it turned out really well. However, I did feel like a completely uncivilized brute when I tore out all of the beautifully engineered piping, piano harp, bellows, and associated mechanisms to make room for booze shelves. I would feel EVEN MORE uncivilized chopping up books, but I recognize that is definitely a me problem.

Plus 1 to physical books and the library.

I love print books, and attended Printed Matter's Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1 in Queens this weekend. What a magnificent display of beautiful books, prints, and zines. 

There are many ways to receive information, but for me, nothing is better than a book. I think that as most creative consumption has shifted to movies or TV shows, books have become, for many, holy objects. And I see this as good and bad.

I love that people value their books. But speaking as someone who has designed many, it breaks my heart when I go to people's homes and I see their books are still wrapped in plastic and never opened. That's the opposite of the intention. It's caging a bird. Same goes with a spine that's never been broken.

I deeply love when people make books their own, installing systems of notes and personal wayfinding throughout. I used to be averse to doggy-eared pages, but now that I'm in a book club I use it mark every page I need to find quickly for our future meeting. Tabs, drawings, number sections on the outside of the pages.

I borrowed an idea from DFW's way of grading student work, each pass receiving a different color pen. When I read and then later re-read books, I try to do each pass with a different color pen so that I can have conversations with my ghost. My first pass in blue, my second in black, etc.

As someone who has struggled to stay connected with books, my gratuitous underlines, brackets, and marginalia keep me connected and allow the pages to feel more alive. And as long as this leads to more reading for me or the people who cut books into sections, I think it's good.

@kottke in Japan, big books are usually split into two. My Japanese copy of the Hobbit is two books, for example. I’m not sure why it’s so, but presumably because it’s easier to carry and read a smaller book on the train. I wish we did that in the US—you’d think publishers would be all over that!

Ha! I literally just bought Lonesome Dove. This is great. Has KDO started doing hypertargeting?? :)