This one is twisted.

Much funnier for me having just watched Ricky Gervais' take on Humpty Dumpty on YouTube.

I still hate the story about interior decorating with leatherbound books that had to be cut in half to fit on teeny not deep enough shelves. There's probably not enough hellfire for that book destroyer.

I agree but then also, if they had made shelves out of the leatherbound books, that seems OK to me. My reverence for books is not immutable.

I have an immediate visceral reaction to anyone damaging a book. When I see decorators doing things like drilling through a couple of leatherbound books to make a lamp, I have to look away. I won't buy from any dealer who strips prints from books, and when I'm in a really bad mood at an antique show, I'll tell other people that they're participating in a heinous crime. The sad part is that most old illustrated books are worth way more cut up.

I am okay with destroying Readers' Digest Condensed Books. As a lamp, they're serving a higher purpose.

I am okay with destroying Readers' Digest Condensed Books.

I'd even go so far as to say I'm in favor of it.

And it gives you light to read REAL books by!

Okay, why has no one told me about Gideon Defoe before?

Er, probably forgetfulness? I thought I had mentioned the Pirates! books here somewhere, but I might have just intended to.

Hee. I noticed you on his flist and wondered why I hadn't heard you mention them before.

All, Slate has a marvelous article about Madeleine L'Engle that I thought some of you would appreciate.

[link]

Now I feel sad about all the old illustrated books I never bought before somebody could cut them apart for prints.

I feel mean now. I think I'll go buy a Reader's Digest Condensed Book at Goodwill. First I'll put lots of highlighting into it. Then I'll fold over pages at random. After that comes the Exacto Knife Follies and the Hot Glue Gun Debacle, followed by extra glitter and sprinkles. That should be foul enough to relieve my feelings.

hee!

I worked at the Huntington Museum and Library a few years ago and got a tour of their vault--pause to wipe reminiscent drool. I can't remember the specific term for the books, but it was quite the fashion a couple of centuries ago to take apart your books and bind them together again so that bits on teh same subject were paged together. The pages would be trimmed to fit willy nilly. The curators at the museum are very conflicted over those books because some of them have pages from books that have otherwise been lost, but then again, those books were lost because fashionistas tore them apart.

Mass market books I have no problem with converting into decorative thingies. You could probably get some nifty 3-D sculptures from the remaindered copies of Jacquelinn Susann books or the stuff on the Barnes & Noble "buy it before we chuck it" shelves.

I shriek about designers who come into people's rooms, look at the books cases and go, "OK, that's just clutter, we'll help you get rid of a bunch of those--or at least put them somewhere where they won't ruin the asthetics."