To hate those book sculpture things?

[MyGastIsFlabbered]

This sort of thing. I accept that the majority are well done and take a lot of effort, but to me it's just desecrating books...I'm a bit of a bibliophile.

Have to laugh at the accusations of them being dust collectors. All books collect dust and clutter the place up. Also have to laugh at the suggestion that its better to recycle a book than it is to make a sculpture out of them. If some people like it then what's the harm? either way it's still a book that wont be read again.

Just get a kindle, they're much easier to keep clean and much tidier than thousands of worthy tomes.

I am calling nobody pretentious but myself.

I used to imagine people being impressed by the sheer quantity of classics, Tolstoy etc. And the intellectual, Simone de Beauvoir etc. I would display these types of books equally alongside the Jilly Cooper and the chick lit, to signify my lack of pretension

It was Marie Kondo that made me realise I was doing this for the benefit of visitors, rather than myself.

Our local library recycles damaged books by making things with them and the proceeds go to buying new books.
I think it's a great idea - my son bought me a Christmas tree made out of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' which is one of my favourite books,

Excellent point from Schuylersister (and fantastic username! Work!)

This horreur about not treating books with holy reverence (unless you are religious, then it makes more sense) makes me cringe too. Your £8.99 paperback, from an archivist perspective, is not that special. These days there are so many in print that folding back an edge and having tatty books (you should see my copy of Les Mis) is inconsequential.

What should upset you more is people using newspaper to line dog litters! Newspapers have a far shorter print run than books, are more limited and of more significance to a historian than a paperback version of Anna Karenina that's still being printed in 50 different editions.

Books are lovely for the content inside

I don't mind these, and I am a curator after all!
If you want to talk about waste then just consider the fact that there must be 400 cows worth of tallow in the paint at the National Gallery...

I don't think you DO anything with them, they just gather dust as far as I can see

True, but the same could be said for any ornament, included books you've read?

Some novels are shit though.

A sculpture is their only chance to be interesting.

I hate them, they're wrong on so many levels. It doesn't matter if the book isn't rare or highbrow, it's still a book being rendered unreadable.

If course its not unusable. Its being used as an ornament, as in many ways so are books in large private libraries which might only be read once in a generation, or never. The rest of the time they're ornamental.

There are loads of crap and/or outdated books out there that no one wants or will ever want and that just end up being pulped.

No one's doing this with first editions or anything good.

Knitted fairy garden in a tea cup? Crikey!

I hate those book sculptures. They just look like a waste of time, messy and moosey. I'd chuck it if given it, possibly top of wardrobe covered in a blanket for a year then throw it on my next barbecue.

I personally wouldn't have one, it wouldn't 'go' in my house, but each to their own.

I know someone who has one which is her surname folded into a book - it makes me smile because her name is Read!

I couldn't do this to any book I own but was fascinated as hadn't seen it before. I googled and must say some of them are really beautiful: www.bing.com/images/search?q=book+sculpture&qpvt=book+sculpture&qpvt=book+sculpture&qpvt=book+sculpture&FORM=IGRE

I still couldn't do it to one of my books, even if I had the skill which I'm pretty sure I don't.

Some of them are crap! But...here's mine. Made for me by a very special friend. The backing is sheet music, and the "Crazy Horses" theme is because apparantly I'm a little batshit! 😂

and wow: www.boredpanda.com/paper-book-sculpture-art/

Ho ho, another book industry person here, all I can say is you guys REALLY don't want to see the book pulping machine at a publisher's warehouse.

I see no harm in it.

But they're an ugly waste if space and I really hope no-one ever gives me one for my birthday!

I agree with you, can't stand them!

eyespy but I don't have to dust those!