Someone out there is taking the term "hack" way too literally.
That someone is author and editor Alex Christofi, who outed himself as a "book murderer" on Twitter Tuesday morning.
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Christofi explained in his now-viral tweet that in order to make long books easier to carry, he cuts them in half, which is completely unhinged behavior. We can't get on board with this, but evidently there are people who can.
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Congratulations to all of you for being incorrect. Hacking up books is (textbook) chaos.
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We have so many questions. First of all, if you're a book cutter, do you do this to hardcover books? Would you take an axe to your own novel?
Also, what happens if you carve up the page bindings? Do the pages just scatter everywhere? Do you have to tape them together?
And how the hell are you supposed to read Infinite Jest, which includes end notes that you can't refer to if you cut the book in half?
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We're not done yet. What happens if you're almost halfway through your book, and you know you're going to have to move on to the other half during your commute? Do you accept that you just won't be getting to the second half of your book that day? Or do you bite the bullet and end up taking both halves of your book with you, anyway, thereby defeating the purpose of shredding it up in the first place?
In the end, how much space does this process save? How many extra packs of gum in your bag make being a book murderer worth it?
While we have our own thoughts on the ethics of book homicide, Twitter is still torn. To which side do you declare your allegiance?
Topics Books
