Yes, but don't destroy books! Make color copies of your favorite pages instead.

If the book is narrow you can put it on a ledge shelf

visual,

What is the difference between cutting a page out of a book and using a color copy?

Maybe I have an irrational attachment to books as books but, unless you're really going to use every page, it just seems wrong to destroy a whole book for a decor project. Then again, I've never marked up a book with a highlighter for the same reason, although I know it's a practical thing to do.

"I have an irrational attachment to books as books"

Fair enough.

; )

I bought a selection of Haeckel prints on eBay undoubtedly from a cut-up book. Only cost about $10 for 5 double-sided pictures.

Yum, fiddleheads! (picture)

trish!! i LOVE fiddleheads.. seems that i am always talking about our cottage on here but fiddleheads grew wild there! so lucky.. simply butter salt and pepper in the castiron.. yum!

Ok, kids, here ya go!

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Kunstformen_der_Natur

That link takes you to a motherlode of Haeckel prints in very high res.....just click on the thumbnail once, then on the pic it links to, then right-click save, and send file to print!

Collect them all! 8^D

Like Jenny, I've purchased antique prints that were cut out of books, which is really the same thing except that I didn't do it myself, so it feels less dirty. I actually love this idea, but I'd need an enabler to cut the book for me.

Nooooooooo...I know, they are lovely, so lovely to look at. But every time you buy a framed antique print, you are only encouraging the destruction of old books -- some of which are very important for academic purposes! I don't know how critical this is when it comes to the study of horticultural books, but I know that the rare books vultures have done some horrible things to ancient medieval illuminated manuscripts. Book sellers have long known that, but for exceptional specimens, they make much more money by selling books leaf by leaf rather than as a whole codex.

It makes me very sad.

Coming into this one late, but I love to cut up Manolo Blahnik's fabulous shoe drawings and frame them for my closet (magazine ads of his sketches also work for those of you who can't seem to bear to cut up a book) and atlases are great as well. I do it with older botanical books (basically, they are a collection of beautiful plates) as well. These books were half mildewed and falling apart anyway.

There was a bandit hitting rare book rooms and slicing rare maps out of books awhile back - disgusting - I'm not advocating that!