It's weird, but the kindle changed my relationship with books. Before the kindle they were something sacred, and a I had a big spreadsheet with the books I had, I had read and I wanted to have, and annotations regarding the lent status.

Now I read more, but value each individual book less. It's weird.

I have the same thought, but had really wanted a "book safe" since watching The Matrix. Enter an old college textbook. Selling for $0.01 on Amazon and now 3 editions old. It was a fun project.

Any book still usable though, I don't have the heart to cut into it.

There's always the option of finding a nicely sized hardcover blank sheet notebook, which is what immediately came to mind when I saw this (though the book used in the article does look gorgeous.)

I feel the same way in some sense but the idea of desecrating a book usually only arises for me when it's being used as a symbol for some unpleasant cause. This particular book is now serving a new purpose and is loved and appreciated in a new way. Also, for me owning a Kindle certainly hasn't diminished my love of having and reading from printed books. I'd really like to see Amazon offering bundle deals where I could buy a physical copy and get the digital version included.

Would you still feel that way about a book a thrift store has several (possibly over a dozen) copies of, such as _Megatrends_, Lee Iaccoca's biography, or old (and terrible) microwave cookbooks?

I understand where you're coming from, and mostly agree with you, but there are many copies of old bestseller (or otherwise overproduced) books that are just taking up space.

I'm sure the tree that was cut down in the first place would be smiling at the demise of paper-based books :]