Blades upon Books - Traditionals

5K Qs said:
I read this Stephen King "detective novel" during a recent vacation. I enjoyed it, and plan to read the other novels in the trilogy it belongs to.
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- GT
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They did a pretty good job on the TV adaptation. I've been thinking of getting the books too.

Speaking of TV adaptations, I'm on book three of the Expanse series. Really enjoying the ride!

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My Blue Jackets' Manual the Navy issued to me in Boot Camp in 1965. All a young man needed to know about the History of the U.S. Navy along with Good Order and Discipline, with a brief look at shipboard life and the day to day workings of the Navy.

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Crazy Canuck said:
They did a pretty good job on the TV adaptation. I've been thinking of getting the books too.
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Thanks for the info about the TV version of King's detective trilogy, Mike! :thumbsup::cool::thumbsup:
I tend not to watch much TV (or movies) anymore, so I wasn't aware of the television adaptation of the Mr. Mercedes trilogy.
I looked up the TV version on Wikipedia today, and from the episode synopses and the cast info there, it looks like there are significant differences between TV and book versions. If you read the first book, I'd be interested to hear how you think the two versions compare.

High class humpback! :cool::thumbsup:🤓

- GT
 
Here's one of the few non-fiction books I've read for "fun" lately. I've read lots of books on the JFK assassination over the years, and thought this was one I must have missed when I saw it in the community library where we were for vacation. It was an interesting book, but the actual "killing" of Kennedy didn't get very much attention in the book. Most of the book was devoted to what went on during Kennedy's presidency prior to his murder, and social/ploitical trends in the U.S. (and around the world) during that time. Lots of stuff I didn't know, since JFK's presidency occurred when I was 9-12 years old, and although I tried to keep informed about current events even at that age, a lot of the info in the book was "kept under wraps" by the news media of a very different time.
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- GT
 
Another vacation read from a couple of weeks ago; it's actually a re-read since I first read the book several years ago. Several federal agencies, working independently and at cross-purposes, are giving Reacher a hard time about a New York subway suicide that Reacher witnessed. Turns out it's all about some photos of a current US senator posing with Osama Bin Laden when the senator was in some Special Forces unit in Afghanistan. There's an Afghan crew applying pressure as well. And the book ends with a vicious multigenerational co-ed knife fight (Reacher uses a non-traditional Benchmade IIRC). Satisfaction guaranteed!
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- GT
 
I remember my dad telling me years ago that books sometimes came with the pages joined along one edge, so you had to use your pocket knife to separate the pages as you read. A quick Google search confirms this. Has anybody actually encountered an old, unread (unopened) book that they needed to cut the pages on to read?

I wonder if somebody made a special knife for this purpose.
 
Just Tom. said:
I remember my dad telling me years ago that books sometimes came with the pages joined along one edge, so you had to use your pocket knife to separate the pages as you read. A quick Google search confirms this. Has anybody actually encountered an old, unread (unopened) book that they needed to cut the pages on to read?

I wonder if somebody made a special knife for this purpose.
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Many times.
I've never seen one where all the pages needed cutting, but old books that haven't been read sometimes have one or a few pairs of leaves joined at the edge.
 
Just Tom. said:
I remember my dad telling me years ago that books sometimes came with the pages joined along one edge, so you had to use your pocket knife to separate the pages as you read. A quick Google search confirms this. Has anybody actually encountered an old, unread (unopened) book that they needed to cut the pages on to read?

I wonder if somebody made a special knife for this purpose.
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What screened porch screened porch said. Also I know that there were times when some books got all pages uncut, and for "cutting" them there were special thin blunt "knives", looked like a flat shoehorn. In my childhood I had a flexible plastic "knife" I used as a toy, however it was for the same purpose of cutting pages originally. I'll try to find all mentioned tools and take pics later.
 
Alex.Y. said:
What screened porch screened porch said. Also I know that there were times when some books got all pages uncut, and for "cutting" them there were special thin blunt "knives", looked like a flat shoehorn. In my childhood I had a flexible plastic "knife" I used as a toy, however it was for the same purpose of cutting pages originally. I'll try to find all mentioned tools and take pics later.
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I didn't know this.
Maybe a thin, blunt knife would follow the crease better than a sharp knife that might veer off.
 
Mine are surely less fancier. 😅
Here they are. Metal one is what seems to be brass or some alloy, handle feels like plastic. Orange one is pure plastic, very flexible. They have (or had, in case of orange one) some sort of edge, but aren't really sharp, because it is not needed for splitting pages.
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screened porch said:
Maybe a thin, blunt knife would follow the crease better than a sharp knife that might veer off.
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You are absolutely correct. I know that from my personal experience. 😕😅


Here's a very interesting book about a tough situation and man's struggle. Upon the book is a Higonokami knife slightly modified by me. I just couldn't bear its original state, so I replaced the original pivot pin with a screw, added washers to fill the empty space and hence reduce the blade play, smoothen the walk, and make it actually stay open by itself without constant pressure on the tang, bended the handle's sides equally all the way (don't know how else I can describe that) so they won't be like a wide skirt near the lanyard hole, and cleaned the rough slag from the blade. I see it as an improvement more than a modification.
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screened porch said:
I didn't know this.
Maybe a thin, blunt knife would follow the crease better than a sharp knife that might veer off.
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Traditional Page Turners, usually ivory, and often very ornate, also had a blunt 'edge'. I used to come across them quite frequently, and often bought the simple ones, and gave them to Stan Shaw for recycling.

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Alex.Y. said:
You are absolutely correct. I know that from my personal experience. 😕😅


Here's a very interesting book about a tough situation and man's struggle. Upon the book is a Higonokami knife slightly modified by me. I just couldn't bear its original state, so I replaced the original pivot pin with a screw, added washers to fill the empty space and hence reduce the blade play, smoothen the walk, and make it actually stay open by itself without constant pressure on the tang, bended the handle's sides equally all the way (don't know how else I can describe that) so they won't be like a wide skirt near the lanyard hole, and cleaned the rough slag from the blade. I see it as an improvement more than a modification.
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Great read :thumbsup:
 
Just Tom. said:
I remember my dad telling me years ago that books sometimes came with the pages joined along one edge, so you had to use your pocket knife to separate the pages as you read. A quick Google search confirms this. Has anybody actually encountered an old, unread (unopened) book that they needed to cut the pages on to read?

I wonder if somebody made a special knife for this purpose.
Click to expand...
You probably have already heard about "in quarto" books. It means the printed page was folded 2 times, making 4 sheets and 8 pages. The middle fold was where the binding was stitched and glued when all were assembled.
Usually preface and summaries were left intact. This book was printed in 1947. It is quite boring to have to cut open the pages. Today nearly all books are trimmed.
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Thus no book can be found with all the pages needing to be "opened".

The "Spirou" weekly comic had a twin central page needing to be folded to read the story (mini-récits). Quite awkward sometime. 😀
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