Speaking as a bibliophile who cuts books apart for a living, it's not that hard. Libraries discard so many old books every week, so when you look at it as a choice between throwing a book away, or cutting it up for art, it's really easy. A few years ago, I rescued over 4000 books from a library that was going to throw them in a dumpster, because they couldn't find any organization to take such a large donation.

I, and every other altered book artist I have met, take great care to use books that are damaged, unwanted, or hopelessly out of date. Anything valuable, rare, or incredibly interesting gets saved and put into my personal collection. And, I recycle all the pages. I give lots away to other artists, use some for other paper projects, some stick around for reading, and the rest go in the recycle bin.

Halfvenus, the ones I sat on were definitely big enough for adults, I'm 6'1". Email them, I bet they would consider a custom order with your favorite titles.

I love BigCozyBooks! I met Erik and his daughter Lindsay at the ALA conference in DC last summer, and fell completely in love with their giant pink eraser. I ended up trading a custom Book Purse for an eraser, and it is my favorite pillow ever.

One of these days I will get myself a giant book chair, they're incredibly comfortable, and even better looking in person.

GORFULATOR, if they're anything like me, most of the books they use are from library discards, thrift stores, and the trash. Sure, I find some valuable things now and then, but those do get saved. I'll bet Ex Libris takes the same care.

I'm a huge fan of theirs, I can see at least 4 notebooks from where I'm sitting, and I've bought twice that many as gifts. We old-book-recyclers have to stick together!