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20ish 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.

Are 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...

I 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.

This 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.

At 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.

I 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.)

I 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.

If 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-...) with 1100+ pages.

I 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.

This 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.

I 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.

Just don't have weak hands.

If 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.

It’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.

Well, 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.

I 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").

I 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.

I 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.

I 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.

I 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

I 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.

I 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!

I 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.

I 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.

Or, 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.

This 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

Chaotic neutral behavior.

Don't forget to sort by color when you're done!

Here I thought this was about shredding your books and going completely digital to save space.

One 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.

Is it easier to do this than to hold your big book and read it?

At 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.

I 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.

Giving yourself the old playstation experience. Please insert Disc 2.

>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.

Nice 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.

I 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.

so this is why people buy books! I mostly read ones from the library

Next up: cutting your vinyl records into concentric circles, so you won't have to carry the weight of the songs you don't like!

This 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.

That 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.

Quick, someone make a startup to print chopped-up-books on demand.

Or - don't choose 850 page books for a book club?

You may love it, but your friend may hate it.

Keep it for yourself.

This seems rather silly, but I admire the audacity, it's a statement in itself.

Having hundreds of books at home and being a great enjoyer of old books, fuck off.

I am so confused

I just did a little sick