This is my appeal to readers everywhere: you should take a knife to your books. (And no, not in the sense that the destructive AI-scanners do.) Like apparently everybody else, my book club recently picked out Lonesome Dove. It’s good. But come on: this is an 850+ page paperback! It is what I call Too Big. It’s going to tire out your hands to hold up an 850-page book for the time it takes to read an 850-page book.

So, I would like to recommend you to a practice I call Chop That Book Up Into Reasonable Sizes. It takes a few minutes and very few tools. You also can enjoy reading reasonably-sized volumes of big books. Here’s what I do when the book is Too Big: Buy a copy. Don’t do this with library books. Paperbacks are easiest but hardbacks work fine too. Find the natural break points. Lonesome Dove is divided into three Parts, and each Part makes a great smaller volume. Otherwise look for chapter breaks.

Crack that spine. Bend the book all the way open at the first break point. Manhandle it. If perfect-bound, bend the spine backwards enough to see the glue strip. X-acto that baby. Carefully slice between the sections, right into the glue. Voila: you have volumes. Next you’ll want to bind it in some new ersatz cover. You can use anything, but I recommend a manila folder. Fold it around your new smaller volume. Make sharp creases. Trim it to size with your x-acto blade. Then glue it on! Elmers will work just fine. Smear a line of glue in the new spine, and use binder clips to hold the manila folder in place. Let it dry. Label it! I think a bold sharpie does the job here. Enjoy your reasonably-sized book.