I’m impressed with how well the inside looks. That had to be time consuming.

I don’t generally believe in destroying books, but these really are disposable, however pretty they may be. There are transfinite numbers of copies of each edition, they contain butchered versions of the stories, and book sales can barely give them away. If they’re just going to be trashed anyway, it’s better to recycle them… and if you’re going to recycle them, this is one legitimate, creative way to do so. I have no need for a purse, but I may swipe this idea as an attractive container for library supplies.

If you’re one of those who has a fondness for these editions, PLEASE save as many as you like by adopting them at library book sales. The libraries need the money, and they need the storage space.

But, as long as it’s square and hard-sided, wouldn’t it make a great lunch-box? You’ve already got insulation, and it would keep your sandwich from getting squashed. Other options would be a sewing box, or a tool box, or a camera case, anything where you need hard sides, and portability.

Takuan,
The picture of the supermarket encylopedia made me very nostalgic. I inherited a set from my mom’s friend’s teenage kids who were getting rid of them. Nearly every page is decorated with hand painted diagrams with a distinctly 1960′s sensibility. Kind of a Dick and Jane make rockets sort of deal. I wonder where they are now….

If the universe had any sense of humor, this would be a serious comment.

If e-book readers were more mature and e.g. interfaced seamlessly with my PC and other viewers; supported math properly; &c., I would do it without thinking twice.

Why is a book any more special than a CD or DVD, besides accident of tradition? Paper is heavy; binding is almost always garbage; it costs fuel to ship; storefronts and libraries are always running out of space. Bah.

And Galaxykate @21 – surely that’s the point? Some moron with one of those enormous 3-wheeled pushchairs started to barge my very expensive *actual* purse in a cafe today (my bag was hanging carefully from my chair – she was bodging it with her repeatedly with her muddy front wheel in an affronted maner) before she realised she couldn’t quite shove the thing past it. Sadly, my purse is soft and plushy. If it had been as satisfyingly pointy at the corners as the condensed books above, I’d have been very happy to bludgeon her with it. (As it was, I just got extremely passive-aggressive and embarrassed myself.)

I myself suggest using $cientology hardcovers. They are as ubiquitous and valuable as cockroaches.

As for the outrage of destroying books — some books are travesties that should never have been printed, and the world is a better place without them.

I’m not talking about ‘objectionable’ books — I’m talking about readers digests, supermarket encylopedias, old history texts and the like. These are books that are poorly written, have outdated editorialized information instead of facts/creativity, and do more damage if read than good.

To those who comment about it being heavy, have you ever lifted a hollowed out hardback book? They’re very light. All those pages are most of the book’s weight. While the belt buckle might be replaced for a strong snap to make it easier to get into, I think it’s definitely a wonderful thing…

do more damage than good? I fear you misapprehend the damage done by no books at all.

<3

Funny you should mention supermarket encyclopedias– when I was a kid, I did something similar to this, carving out a book to make a “book safe”. It was made from an orphan volume of a “supermarket encyclopedia” set. IIRC, I used an Exacto knife, did it a few pages at a time, slowly. (These were the old days when children were trusted with knives without being thought terrorists or apt to kill themselves).

go ahead, hate me if you must. when you trash one book because you don’t like it, you allow everybody else to trash books that they don’t like. maybe even a trash book that you have a personal connection to.

this is how it all starts. and you know how it ends…

…Damn good point. Destroying books like this is pretty much akin to bookburning in my book.

[blinks]

…I can NOT believe I just punned like that.

[shakes head in utter dismay at self]

The only problem is that I would still want the book to be cool. However, if the book is really cool, then I wouldn’t want to mutilate it… Guess I’ll have to wait for a 2 for 1 sale.