so this is why people buy books! I mostly read ones from the library
Chopping up books when they're physically too big
101–110 of 207 posts
Re: Chopping up books when they're physically too big
#102Are 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...
Damn, did news articles ~7 years ago really just consist of a series of embedded tweets? It feels familiar but also kind of jarring.
Yes, and I recall at the time being exasperated by it -- "Twitter is NOT NEWS it is children yelling across the playground at each other!"
Re: Chopping up books when they're physically too big
#103I 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.)
At 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.
Re: Chopping up books when they're physically too big
#104This 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 devi…
This is what I do as well.
Buy the paperback for larping and performative reading. Get the epub from Anna's to actually read it.
Re: Chopping up books when they're physically too big
#105Are 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...
Or Disney releasing a movie called "Frozen" so that web searches for "Disney Frozen" stopped returning macabre rumors about Walt Disney's possible posthumous cryogenic preservation.
Or Eldin ring naming your horse "Torrent" so that searches for "Eldin Ring Torrent" would bring up your horse instead of pirate downloads
Re: Chopping up books when they're physically too big
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
I once read that the only way you can actually damage a book, is by not reading it.
Fire is pretty effective too, in my experience.
Floods are pretty bad for them too. I have some books drying now, some paper is really bad about getting wet while others are okay.
Re: Chopping up books when they're physically too big
#107I 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…
I once read that the only way you can actually damage a book, is by not reading it.
Well, one can damage a hardcover by not opening it properly the first time:
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)
Re: Chopping up books when they're physically too big
#108This 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 devi…
honestly, a manila envelope and some elmer’s glue is a lot easier than i expected going in.
Re: Chopping up books when they're physically too big
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 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.
I was shocked to discover that "How To Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie was heavily rewritten by his wife after his death. I had two copies of the book, and sure enough, one was the old version and the other the new. The new one did not withstand scrutiny.
May I ask: what was different? This is the first time I’ve heard of this and I’ve only seen what was, likely, the new edition.
Re: Chopping up books when they're physically too big
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
That'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 configur…
You must have forgotten the point of this thread was about chopping books.
It 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.