To answer your question, I think that it’s about value.
A book can be read by multiple people over time, so it can have a bigger lifespan and usage than a single lifetime. By destroying it, you cut that potential. For example, with what OP did, you might loose a part of these books, which make them worthless.
Beyond that, you have made a destructive modification on an object. Usually, there is only two outcome possible after this. Either you made it better in some way (like people who mod they cars or, to stay on topic, people who draw on the paper edge of a book) or you decreased the value of the object (if you were to resell it, this book has now very little value, except if it gain some notoriety for some reason).
I don’t think we should strive and encourage the destruction of value or voluntary spoilage. This mostly struck a nerve as most of what we do is fight entropy (and that requires energy).
We are surrounded by products and we may sometimes loose the context of how something is made and what it took, especially when we are living in a consumerist society.
Also many “made thing” are close to worthless and sometimes absurd (“who would need that?”). This and trends like fast fashion accelerate this feeling of spoiling on a mass scale, making this voluntary acts of destruction even more irritating.
One last point, book burning and destruction is usually done to erase culture and people, so it’s related to very bad events and it feels deeply wrongs.
But, of course, if OP is honest about doing that to be able to read something that he would not read without (99% sure it’s for the même), and the books modified in questions are not prescious or rare then I agree that it is not a big deal. In the end this is done for the laughs, it will not trigger a big trend and cause the destruction of precious books. But I just wanted to explain the triggered side and try to answer your question hoping it was honest.
PS: I not a native English speaker and you are an author so please forgive me for my spelling mistakes, I hope you and other still get my point across. Thanks
As a regular visitor to the library and a low-key home archivist, I care.
Doing something like this to a book, even if done masterfully, drastically reduces its lifespan and makes it possible to lose parts. And one book can be read way more than once.
It is simply irresponsible to treat something, anything, that can serve you for decades, in a way that makes it practically single-use.
I feel like there is a lack of understanding how or what about e-ink. My partner only grasped the concept that it’s not an emmisive display after the 5th time explaining. And some friends still don’t seem to understand the difference between an e-reader and tablet. (they are extremely tech-illiterate)
If I extrapolate this, there have to be a lot of people who don’t want an e-reader because ‘they don’t want to look at a screen’.
just popping in to say that, as somebody who is very affected by looking at a screen before going to sleep, my Kindle is one of the best value items that I’ve ever had.
The reverence some folks have for stacks of thin pieces of tree is crazy. Still remember running into this TAing in grad school, where people’s feelings about novels were more about codex fetishism than the actual work.
I’m not here to kink shame, if that’s your deal then whatever, but at the end of the day a mass produced, physical book is just an object. If you paid for it, you own it and can do whatever you want to it. Want to cut out all of the pages and frame them so you can read a story standing up looking at your wall? Go for it. Want to chop it in half like the image here? Sure, go nuts. Want to make a model house with paper mache using pages from House of Leaves? That sounds dope, I’m in. Model church (or better/more subversive) with pages of the King James bible? Fuck it, we ball.
I personally make an exception for small print runs and hard to find books, but if you can buy it from a Coles/Chapters/Barnes and Noble/whatever it’s fair game imo.
I mean might be related to writing and the printing press being two of the most important inventions in history, if I had to hazard a guess. Transfer of knowledge through books was a complete gamechanger for humanity.
I understand the history and impact of printed media. But let’s be honest - a book you’re buying in 2026 is generally not a rare tome with limited copies, with an artisan’s attention paid to its crafting as an object. It’s just another mass produced item, following a path that generally looks like ‘purchase -> use -> discard (whether that’s to another reader, a used book store, or a shredder)’. They can cycle for quite a while, sure, but eventually most books end up in a bin.
Given this, I personally feel a book is subject to the whim of its current owner, and that’s ok. Want to keep it in pristine condition with an eye to maximum amount of cycles before bin time? Can’t fault you for that. Want to take advantage of its physicality to make it more convenient for your use, like in this image? Fair play. Want to use that physical material for something more creative? Fuck yeah dude, go for it.
Where I pause a bit is just tossing it into a shredder once you don’t want it anymore. Does that logically follow from my approach here? Yeah, but it does seem like a waste compared to the other things you can do with it.
Edit: a question, actually. With all of this in mind, how do folks here feel about collage, blackout poetry, cut-up technique, etc.?
I don’t care about your children but good for them, I guess. It’s never about the medium, it’s about the content, so if you like to read on screens, paper, cut books or toilet paper, it doesn’t matter. Only the content matters. Audiobooks are okay too.
New research suggests it is slightly about the medium (for the kids, idk about adults it wasn’t discussed). Physical books are better for attention span, apparently because they have “friction”, i.e., you have to turn the page yourself so you “work” for the information, which makes information “valuable” so you hold onto it.
I guess we can have crank-powered e-readers where you have to work to turn the page?
Your brain works differently listening to audiobooks than reading. So it’s not necessarily a substitute, in that you may not get the same out of the text.
Having said that, my wife is a bit ADHD and struggles to read books, but is addicted to audiobooks. 😅
Man, people like you are why others hate reading. You hurt my business by thinking that the medium choice grants you some form of moral/intellectual superiority, and you hurt other’s enjoyment by boasting about it. Stop looking at the finger and start looking at the moon.
People, read books on the medium that you are more confortable with, be it screen or paper. Treat your books however the fuck you want. Listen to books if you don’t have the time/focus to read. Be a sleazy fuck and watch the movie/series about the book if you’re not really into it. What? There’s a video game about it? Play it.
It’s never about the cup, it’s about the wine inside it. Confront yourselves to new ideas and stories, because that’s what it is all about, not “carving mental holes in your books to put your mental wee-wee inside, because paper is sacred”.
Wanna imagine things with your brain but can’t be bothered to read boring stuff? Play tabletop roleplaying games, it’s even more effective because you’re actively engaging in it.
Got aphantasia, you were born without the capacity to imagine what you read as you read it? Watch the movie.
Got dyslexia? Bored at the gym? Stuck in traffic?Audiobook.
Etc etc.
If you have one fucking thing to take away from this rant, it’s : it’s not about the cup, it’s about the wine. If you can’t get that, you’re not a reader, you’re a fetishist and you’re hurting the one thing you care about (and probably would read the most toxic shit and swallow it just because it’s printed on paper).
I have no idea who you are, aside from what you’ve stated in these comments, but you clearly have a great passion for the core concept of what stories are capable of.
Just wanted to make it known I respect that passion, and am uplifted by knowing it exists out there somewhere. Cheers for that. 💛
Just so you’re aware, your posts in this thread come across as very belligerent to me. I’m trying to ignore the tone that I perceive, and to clarify.
My understanding had been that the brain worked differently based on how it was getting text. I did a bit of DuckDuckGo and it turns out that further research shows that these differences are not that big:
I am extremely belligerent against people who gatekeep joy and self-cultivation by confining it to text on paper only, because by doing so they spit on a lot more of artists and engineers’ faces.
Books are valid, audiobooks are valid, comics are valid, movies are valid, TV shows are valid, TTRPGs are valid, video games are valid, etc etc.
Especially video games, since they are at the crossroad of all art and engineering forms (drawing, 3d modelling, music, programming, writing, acting, voice acting, animation, etc etc).
Author here, I don’t give a fuck, as long as the book was bought/is read. Stop fetishizing books or start fucking them.
I do wonder why this person wouldn’t just use a e-ink reader, though.
To answer your question, I think that it’s about value.
A book can be read by multiple people over time, so it can have a bigger lifespan and usage than a single lifetime. By destroying it, you cut that potential. For example, with what OP did, you might loose a part of these books, which make them worthless.
Beyond that, you have made a destructive modification on an object. Usually, there is only two outcome possible after this. Either you made it better in some way (like people who mod they cars or, to stay on topic, people who draw on the paper edge of a book) or you decreased the value of the object (if you were to resell it, this book has now very little value, except if it gain some notoriety for some reason).
I don’t think we should strive and encourage the destruction of value or voluntary spoilage. This mostly struck a nerve as most of what we do is fight entropy (and that requires energy).
We are surrounded by products and we may sometimes loose the context of how something is made and what it took, especially when we are living in a consumerist society. Also many “made thing” are close to worthless and sometimes absurd (“who would need that?”). This and trends like fast fashion accelerate this feeling of spoiling on a mass scale, making this voluntary acts of destruction even more irritating.
One last point, book burning and destruction is usually done to erase culture and people, so it’s related to very bad events and it feels deeply wrongs.
But, of course, if OP is honest about doing that to be able to read something that he would not read without (99% sure it’s for the même), and the books modified in questions are not prescious or rare then I agree that it is not a big deal. In the end this is done for the laughs, it will not trigger a big trend and cause the destruction of precious books. But I just wanted to explain the triggered side and try to answer your question hoping it was honest.
PS: I not a native English speaker and you are an author so please forgive me for my spelling mistakes, I hope you and other still get my point across. Thanks
As a regular visitor to the library and a low-key home archivist, I care.
Doing something like this to a book, even if done masterfully, drastically reduces its lifespan and makes it possible to lose parts. And one book can be read way more than once.
It is simply irresponsible to treat something, anything, that can serve you for decades, in a way that makes it practically single-use.
I feel like there is a lack of understanding how or what about e-ink. My partner only grasped the concept that it’s not an emmisive display after the 5th time explaining. And some friends still don’t seem to understand the difference between an e-reader and tablet. (they are extremely tech-illiterate)
If I extrapolate this, there have to be a lot of people who don’t want an e-reader because ‘they don’t want to look at a screen’.
Just it’s a slow screen that’s better for reading in the sun.
Well, let them read on paper, then.
just popping in to say that, as somebody who is very affected by looking at a screen before going to sleep, my Kindle is one of the best value items that I’ve ever had.
FINALLY I’VE SEEN SOMEONE ELSE SAYING THIS!
The reverence some folks have for stacks of thin pieces of tree is crazy. Still remember running into this TAing in grad school, where people’s feelings about novels were more about codex fetishism than the actual work.
I’m not here to kink shame, if that’s your deal then whatever, but at the end of the day a mass produced, physical book is just an object. If you paid for it, you own it and can do whatever you want to it. Want to cut out all of the pages and frame them so you can read a story standing up looking at your wall? Go for it. Want to chop it in half like the image here? Sure, go nuts. Want to make a model house with paper mache using pages from House of Leaves? That sounds dope, I’m in. Model church (or better/more subversive) with pages of the King James bible? Fuck it, we ball.
I personally make an exception for small print runs and hard to find books, but if you can buy it from a Coles/Chapters/Barnes and Noble/whatever it’s fair game imo.
I mean might be related to writing and the printing press being two of the most important inventions in history, if I had to hazard a guess. Transfer of knowledge through books was a complete gamechanger for humanity.
I understand the history and impact of printed media. But let’s be honest - a book you’re buying in 2026 is generally not a rare tome with limited copies, with an artisan’s attention paid to its crafting as an object. It’s just another mass produced item, following a path that generally looks like ‘purchase -> use -> discard (whether that’s to another reader, a used book store, or a shredder)’. They can cycle for quite a while, sure, but eventually most books end up in a bin.
Given this, I personally feel a book is subject to the whim of its current owner, and that’s ok. Want to keep it in pristine condition with an eye to maximum amount of cycles before bin time? Can’t fault you for that. Want to take advantage of its physicality to make it more convenient for your use, like in this image? Fair play. Want to use that physical material for something more creative? Fuck yeah dude, go for it.
Where I pause a bit is just tossing it into a shredder once you don’t want it anymore. Does that logically follow from my approach here? Yeah, but it does seem like a waste compared to the other things you can do with it.
Edit: a question, actually. With all of this in mind, how do folks here feel about collage, blackout poetry, cut-up technique, etc.?
My kids both prefer paper books to e-readers.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don’t care about your children but good for them, I guess. It’s never about the medium, it’s about the content, so if you like to read on screens, paper, cut books or toilet paper, it doesn’t matter. Only the content matters. Audiobooks are okay too.
New research suggests it is slightly about the medium (for the kids, idk about adults it wasn’t discussed). Physical books are better for attention span, apparently because they have “friction”, i.e., you have to turn the page yourself so you “work” for the information, which makes information “valuable” so you hold onto it.
I guess we can have crank-powered e-readers where you have to work to turn the page?
Your brain works differently listening to audiobooks than reading. So it’s not necessarily a substitute, in that you may not get the same out of the text.
Having said that, my wife is a bit ADHD and struggles to read books, but is addicted to audiobooks. 😅
Man, people like you are why others hate reading. You hurt my business by thinking that the medium choice grants you some form of moral/intellectual superiority, and you hurt other’s enjoyment by boasting about it. Stop looking at the finger and start looking at the moon.
People, read books on the medium that you are more confortable with, be it screen or paper. Treat your books however the fuck you want. Listen to books if you don’t have the time/focus to read. Be a sleazy fuck and watch the movie/series about the book if you’re not really into it. What? There’s a video game about it? Play it.
It’s never about the cup, it’s about the wine inside it. Confront yourselves to new ideas and stories, because that’s what it is all about, not “carving mental holes in your books to put your mental wee-wee inside, because paper is sacred”.
Wanna imagine things with your brain but can’t be bothered to read boring stuff? Play tabletop roleplaying games, it’s even more effective because you’re actively engaging in it.
Got aphantasia, you were born without the capacity to imagine what you read as you read it? Watch the movie.
Got dyslexia? Bored at the gym? Stuck in traffic?Audiobook.
Etc etc.
If you have one fucking thing to take away from this rant, it’s : it’s not about the cup, it’s about the wine. If you can’t get that, you’re not a reader, you’re a fetishist and you’re hurting the one thing you care about (and probably would read the most toxic shit and swallow it just because it’s printed on paper).
I have no idea who you are, aside from what you’ve stated in these comments, but you clearly have a great passion for the core concept of what stories are capable of.
Just wanted to make it known I respect that passion, and am uplifted by knowing it exists out there somewhere. Cheers for that. 💛
Just so you’re aware, your posts in this thread come across as very belligerent to me. I’m trying to ignore the tone that I perceive, and to clarify.
My understanding had been that the brain worked differently based on how it was getting text. I did a bit of DuckDuckGo and it turns out that further research shows that these differences are not that big:
https://benjaminfranklininstitute.org/books-vs-audiobooks-is-reading-always-better-for-your-brain-than-listening/
I am extremely belligerent against people who gatekeep joy and self-cultivation by confining it to text on paper only, because by doing so they spit on a lot more of artists and engineers’ faces.
Books are valid, audiobooks are valid, comics are valid, movies are valid, TV shows are valid, TTRPGs are valid, video games are valid, etc etc.
Especially video games, since they are at the crossroad of all art and engineering forms (drawing, 3d modelling, music, programming, writing, acting, voice acting, animation, etc etc).
My take is that this person being an author probably had this very same discussion thousands of times.
There’s also a nice screen rant by John Green (author, but I have yet to reada any of his books) somewhere on YouTube on the exact same topic.