Evening star., 1944-12-07
This and That
By Charles T. Traceuell.


Which type of book would you prefer
to get for Christmas-with cut or uncut
pages?
Give us the uncut book every time.
There is something supremely booky
about it.
Few physical delights of reading equal
the luxury of cutting fine pages with
the proper knife.
The knife is Important.
Any old cutter will not do 1t must
be one not too thick, not too thin, not
too sharp, but not dull.
The dull knife gnaws a big tear just
at the wrong place. The too-sharp
knife, on the other hand, slices half
way down page before the reader
knows what has happened.
Dull knives, such as fashioned
letter openers, simply are too dull to
do the work properly They hack.
Cutting is what is desired. The fingers
OF the left hand are inserted between
the pages, delicately, and the knife is
started at the bottom and carefully
drawn along, care being taken that
the blade is held true, and without
deviation, exactly in the crease
In this way the page may be cut
from top to bottom without the slight
est ragged place or knick showing on
either side.
The most care must be exerted at the
beginning and at the end of the cut.
II the beginning is not correct, the
blade will slice sideways. If keen at
tention is not given to the matter
near the end disaster will occur
This is real disaster, to a booklover.
at least to a certain sort of booklover.
There are some, of course, who yank
pages apart with their fingers. Think
of 1t! A few eminent men of letters.
1--WE suppose one would have to call them
booklovers) have been reported to cut
the pages of new book with a knife
which they had just used to butter
their toast
The careful booklover, let us say, will
not do such a thing. He would Just
as soon murder his grandmother
AS to whether or not books could be
printed with uncut leaves in the first
place, that we leave to the publishers.
Some do, some do not Often a book
Will be uncut just toward the end.
The story is coming along to it's most
exciting place, when bang! the page
will not turn over. What to do, then?
Inside the looped sheet the action con-
tinues, but one can just see few words,
by dint of peering in. Shall the reader
cut as he reads, or take time out and
cut the remaining pages as a whole?
The latter is perhaps the best system,
but sometimes it requires will power
Some publishers, through the ext
gencies of printing, manage to leave
not only the outer edges uncut, but
sometimes the top or bottom edges. This
takes some manipulation, on the careful
readers part. The volume will have
to be turned around, according to the
lay OF the pages, for the knife must
always cut outward and toward the
right. Any other method will result
in gnarled pages. Only a whittier
could handle book otherwise, and
not all OF us are whittlers Besides, no
fair page should be handled as a stick
OF wood. 1t came from wood in the
first place, but it is wood no longer,
but that most marvellous of all man
made things, the printed page, which
various sages have estimated to be of
more Importance than the sword. Zone
would not think so, from the look of
the world since 1880
Preliminary to all book-page cutting,
the reader should wash his hands care
fully, and dry them even more care
fully. This is also true for the person
who handles the disks on the phono-
graph. All works of art should be ham
died with dry, clean hands.
A real question Is whether to cut all
the leaves before reading begins, or cut
as one goes. There are many advo-
Gates of both schools. The first meth
cd is our personal preference, since it
permits the delicious lingering thought
which is a perpetual delight in book
handling. And then when the cutting
is all through, there is a great salts
faction to be had, just for the looking
and the content may bs enjoyed as it
should be thereafter.