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Hacker News front pageMatt Kirkland3 min readintro

Chopping up books when they're physically too big

Read on mattkirkland.comHN 220·208 comments

Summary

A personal how‑to for physically cutting large paperback books into smaller, hand‑held volumes using a knife, glue, and a manila folder. No engineering content.

  • The article describes a DIY method to split a thick book into smaller sections by locating natural break points, cutting the glue on the spine, and rebinding each section with a simple cover.
  • Steps include buying the book, identifying break points (chapters or parts), bending the spine, cutting with an X‑Acto knife, creating a makeshift cover, gluing, labeling, and using the new smaller volumes.

The piece is a niche, non‑technical hobby guide; it offers no insight relevant to software engineering, system design, or performance.

2/10
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