All the Horrifying Things We Do to Our Books
How Much Damage Can You Do to a Book and Still Live with Yourself?
When author Norman Mailer gave J. Michael Lennon his book Advertisements for Myself, the copy was missing more than a hundred pages. Mailer had yanked out entire chunks. “For Mike, this working copy of Advertisements for Myself with sections removed,” Mailer inscribed the book. “God knows what I tore them out for.” It was a first edition.
“Mailer couldn’…


