People get weirdly mystical about books, and I say that as someone who likes old bookstores and still buys hardcovers. A book is an object first. Sometimes a useful one, sometimes junk, sometimes history. If a teacher cuts up a common copy to show how binding, paper, type, and repair work, that's not sacrilege, that's education. The point of loving books shouldn't be pretending every glued stack of pages is holy. Save the rare stuff, mark up the textbooks, and stop acting like touching a spine too hard is cultural arson.