It's ... it's like witnessing a murder

How to make a Christmas (or, I guess, any seasonal) wreath out of a recycled book.

And it's clever. It's potentially neat-looking. It's better than throwing old books into landfills. It's ....

AAAUGH!

Seriously, this lady has a clever and useful idea. Even I throw a book in the trash sometimes, and usually some of its pages are good for a project like this. Damaged, already-dismantled books, GREAT, do it!

But when I watch her use good, sound books, not just the one her dog chewed, but the Peter Devries--

(Haha, you didn't think I caught that nice copy of a respectable author, did you? You tried to hide the book's identity, but my pause button was too clever for you!)

.... and then, when she suggests using a book with sentimental value to your family....!!

It's not her, or the Nature Conservancy's, fault. The simple fact is that run-of-the-mill copies of older books, even good copies, even non-junk authors, are not valued in this society anymore. Neither she nor the Conservancy made it that way, and those books she bought at the library sale and ripped to pieces for this wreath would probably have ended up in the dumpster after a few months of customer disinterest.

This is a better fate for them. I know, I know, OK?

But watching her rip out the pages from a tight, snugly bound and nice vintage paperback was like watching Jack the Ripper dismantle his victims.