I mean, if you had like a hand bound copy or rare out of print book or something like that this sentiment makes sense, but if it’s just some abundant mass produced edition, I’m not so sure. Surely the artistry there is in the words, which aren’t damaged and exist in other copies anyway, rather than the cheap machine made physical medium.
To me it’s just disrespectful to damage a book, regardless of which physical form it has. Paperbacks falling apart when they’re worn out are OK, that’s basically showing how much they were loved. But taking scissors to them is still almost as bad as taking scissors to a first edition hardback.
I mean, if you had like a hand bound copy or rare out of print book or something like that this sentiment makes sense, but if it’s just some abundant mass produced edition, I’m not so sure. Surely the artistry there is in the words, which aren’t damaged and exist in other copies anyway, rather than the cheap machine made physical medium.
It would absolutely ruin their durability, so I’d say it’s definitely objectively a bad idea.
To me it’s just disrespectful to damage a book, regardless of which physical form it has. Paperbacks falling apart when they’re worn out are OK, that’s basically showing how much they were loved. But taking scissors to them is still almost as bad as taking scissors to a first edition hardback.