tuscanlifeedit

I do it all the time, especially with out of date books...

I tend to think of guide books as if they were magazines and not precious tomes, but that's me.

I am always updating my guidebooks, so why not tear them up?

saltymuffin

I get the spines cut off off my guide books, then reassemble the parts I need into one or two "books" which I get rebound with a spiral binding. I tear pages out as I leave an area and evenually abandon the remains before coming back home.

The first time I cut a travel book I felt a pang of guilt, but the convienience is so worth it, I never looked back.

nytraveler

Yes - we do it all the time - since we usually take at least 4/5 guidebooks with us we have room only for pieces.

It's not like you're shredding a Shakespeare first folio. They're inexpensive and out of date in 3/4 years anyway.

kenderina

I do it with cheap books..not with good ones with beautiful photography... But if they are just cheap ones that get obsolete soon..I just don't mind

FainaAgain

I take double-sided photocopies from library travel books and rip up AAA guide books. No, I don't feel guilty to rip up a free book. Probably I should, huh?

I don't think I've ever bought a tour book except as a gift. Maps, yes, I buy those if needed.

Robespierre

You mean the free AAA books that cost $67 a year? Or do you have the $106 version?

Oh well, they don't charge for passport photos.

FainaAgain

Robespierre, it gets even worse! My son is a AAA member, he gets their books for me for free.

Just keep in mind, typing a reply, Fodor's will ban you if you tell me all you think of me being such a cheapskate

2Italy

A sin against GOD to tear up ANY book? WOW! That Archie comic book I tore up 47 years ago has doomed me to hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, since Gutenberg invented movable type, books have gotten cheaper and ideas have been able to spread faster and better. A book is a tool to be used, especially a tour guide.
I have torn sections out of such books as Fodor's and Rick Steve's to carry with me. I buy new ones every time we go back so it's no big deal. I have carried the whole book but they are bulky.
A tour book is not some great treatise or presentation of one's beliefs, philosophy, or anything like that; it's a tool. Use it as you will. IMHO

annabelle2

Oddly enough it was my librarian mother, who would have cringed if we turned down the corners of a page to mark it (I still can't imagine doing that) who tore her "Myra Waldo" car touring guides to Europe in nice convenient sections!

As I ventured out on my own, I also tore up my Let's Go guides to lighten my backpack. I passed the pages on to any interested fellow backpackers...

Now, I agree with those who say that they would not tear apart a nice glossy photo-filled book, but I have no problem with ripping into Rick Steves, for some reason.

Degas, u make me laff!

cmt

I prefer to make two-sided photocopies of the relevant pages. I hate the idea of tearing up a book, but compared to the expense of travel, it really wouldn't hurt to tear up an $18 book or two and maybe even splurge on buying an extra copy to keep clean and intact at home.

Underhill

Tearing up a book...no, no, no! The pages scream as they are torn out.

Dejais

Books are precious things. I write little notes of importance in them sometimes and no matter how old they are I could never part with them let alone tear pages out of them. Oh no, no, no...

loisco

Yes yes yes! I even tore out pages of a Michelin Red Guide. I will admit it hurt, but after I did it once, it was painless, lol.

For me it's a choice between all the tour books and reading material and I can't travel without books to read...

Right now I am destroying a Frommers Italy book...but we have to keep the weight down and our trips are so long and to so many different places, I can't see any other way. I figure if I like a book that much I can always buy another one.

wliwl

Mine are all torn up and rubber-banded together. Who cares???

OReilly

No, I can't - books are precious things! I did it once and felt REALLY guilty about it after. Now, I photocopy the sections instead and it is definately better than taking the guilde books.

Karen Brown offers PDF driving tours on her website that I download. I wish others would offer a printable CD so one could print the sections one wants to take.

jules4je7

We did it on our first trip and regretted it when we got back -- because as we were talking about our trip and wanting to look up old info, we no longer had the complete book to look up what we needed.

Personally, I don't think the saved space is worth it if you have to replace the book when you get home.

Jules

Maire

I even hate to bend the corners of pages, but I will make an exception for guidebooks. Here is what I posted on an earlier thread:

>> I took two guidebooks to Kinko's today. For $1.50, they chopped off the bindings. I then spent 10 minutes in the self-service area three-hole punching the pages. I put the pages I'm interested in into a small 3-ring binder (7x9).

When I get to Italy, each day I plan to take the pages out of the binder that I need for the specific area we're in and put them in my daybag.<<

nessundorma

I rip up tour guides all the time, but stopped doing it when I began revisiting some places in my travels and couldn't find the ripped out pages!

Books are not sacred. Your friends and other people are sacred.

amaclise

I always take the shiny cover, the overview of the country and the TOC with me in addition to the sections I need. It makes me feel like I have the whole book with me.

I love taking just the pages for one day with me and also putting the book back together when I get home!

I think Rick Steves deserves some credit here - he's the one who first told me to go ahead and tear them up!

Robespierre

Rick probably just says that so you have to buy new ones next year - but you outfoxed him by putting yours back together!