Cutting Books in Half Is a Trick
Some hacks may not work for everyone. If you feel faint at the thought of damaging your book, skim this post and lie down until you’re ready to read about less horrific life hacks. But if you’re not squeamish, let’s talk about why cutting books in half is a brilliant idea.
Writer and editor Alex Christofi, who is writing a book about Dostoevsky according to his biography, so I believe he has a lot of this problem, tweeted that he splits large books in half to make them easier to carry around.
And do you know what I’m talking about? Why not. This fits any definition of hacking. It solves the real problem, its advantages outweigh the disadvantages – I know there will be controversy about this, but wait – and it helps you do what you want to do: read on. (Plus, you’re literally hacking into the book.)
What if I need endnotes? What if I’m near the end of my section?
If you think you will need the later portions of the book, there is another trick, courtesy of scholar and writer Jason Bittel: start with the entire book and delete previously read passages if necessary. He came up with this trick on nine-day hikes where space and weight matter:
But inner pages will be damaged or yellow prematurely!
This is the book you have abbreviated to make it easier to read. You are not donating this to the National Archives. If your purse is in a particularly harsh environment, you can always cut out a piece of cardboard as an impromptu cover and secure it with duct tape.
This is what e-books are for
Look, some hacks aren’t for everyone. Personally, I hate e-books! I will literally forget that I have a book because it is digital nothing, not a thing on my shelf. Some of us like to have a physical object. You must find the tricks that work for you.
But you’re hurting the book!
Look, the book exists to serve you . Its job is to temporarily store words until you can insert those words into your eyes. As the owner of the book, it is your right to change the book so that it does its job better. (Obviously, we don’t hack library books or valuable copies that friends have lent us.)
I used to be a fan of books, but I discovered years ago that the dog-ear pages are really pretty damn comfortable. More importantly, the ability to find the page that I would like to mention later, or keep the corner intact? This is a judgment, but I personally choose the former. Hey, this is my book. I haven’t cut the book in half yet, but I would have thought.
When you’re done, will the book wear a little worse? Yes, but all the books are there. If you want to keep your book, you can tape it and stick it to the shelf. If not, well, it did its job, right? Books are there to be read, so read them however you want.