corpep

Never thought of it before, but I've been stroies of people ripping their tour books into more manageable pieces to pack and take with them. Bringing only the regions that they're visiting and using. Anyone do this and not feel bad about detroying a book?

Kate_W

I don't tear my guidebook up. I just photocopy the relevant pages (2 to a page, and double-sided photcopies), put the pages in a folder with other travel info, and then chuck out the pages when I don't need them anymore.

walkinaround

almost all my tour books are property of my local library ...and i don't think they would appreciate this.

Robespierre

All of my tour books are digitized and downloaded to my iPAQ. They're already torn to bits...

missypie

I just can't bring myself to. I admit that I spring for the books on each city, as opposed to each country.

ira

It is a sin against god and nature to tear up a book, any book.

mikeyb

These threads are getting more and more ridiculous.

Underhill

Wouldn't it be loverly if publishers were to offer travel books binder-style?

Robespierre

Or how about as iPOD books that could be downloaded under Apple DRM? This <u>is</u> the twenty-first century, last time I looked.

L84SKY

On our last vacation we tore pages out of the guidebook and felt the guilt. Turned out that we could have used a section we didn't cut out. It must have been that book karma coming at us!

blackduff

I still have my first &quot;Europe on $10.00&quot;. This book was stripped and into sections, depending on what I was visiting. The great weight was way too fat to carry on a trip.

I still have that book and the sections which were sliced. If someone wants to keep this, let me know and I'll send it along.

I guess it should go to a burial book cemetery but it wasn't marked in the book.

Blackduff

justretired

We just got back from a 3 week trip to northern Italy. We tore out pages of a fairly old Rick Steves book, and were happy to have the small number of pages- it worked well. Copying pages from such a thick book was difficult. My husband carries a PDA with lots of relative stuff, while I carry files. When we return to Italy in a few years, we'll buy another book if we want and it's relevant.No guilt at all, and I'm a book collector.

travelinsue

Tear up tour books??? Absolutely!! We used the Rick Steves &quot;Germany, Austria &amp; Switzerland 2005&quot; Book. We were not going to Berlin or Frankfurt or the Mosel Valley. So I ripped out those pages.

As we traveled I would tear out the pages we no loger needed. This lightened our load (more room for chocolate bars &amp; other goodies). By the end of the trip we had no tour book.

The book becomes outdated anyway. If we return to Germany, Austria or Switzerland it will be in a few years. We will need the newer edition then.

CarolJean

I have cut the pages out of tour books for years. If I want to keep the book, I reinsert them when I return. All of the cut pages for a particular area (city) go into a lg. ziplock bag. This works well for me. CJ

degas

I tore up my third grader reading and math books and that tragic act doomed me to a boring, meager life filled with nothing but trouble and dispair. Think before you act! Did I spell dispair corereckly?

HappyCheesehead

Depending on the book, absolutely, I tear them up! I remove the pages for the areas I will visit and then use binder clips to keep those pages together and in order. I do bring them home and insert them back in the book.

I will not rip up my DK Eyewitness guides however, just the Rough Guide/Fodors type guide books with no pictures and thin, light pages.

kleeblatt

I'm thinking of selling my travel books on Ricardo (Switzerland's answer to EBay) before they are really out-of-date. If a travel book is more than ten years old, I discard it and buy a new one before my travels.

CarolA

I rip them up and don't think twice... I know that if I go back I will buy the updated version. (It's my book who cares if I tear it up?)

suze

I only use guidebooks at home to plan the trip, I don't carry them along with me (torn or not!).

surfmom

I've done it (when I was lugging around the Let's Go guides when I was a student) and wished I had other sections as our plans changed. I also felt a little sad when I wanted to go back and reminisce and I'd lost the 'details'.

Another alternative: take the book to a local Kinko's or copy shop - they can take the binder off the book for you and put a loose leaf one on. Might cost a few bucks to do so, but you can then re-assemble if that's what you desire.