Tweet about cutting books in half sends Twitter into tailspin

A single tweet about slicing books in half to make them more portable has split Twitter in two.

Alex Christofi, a senior editor at Oneworld Publications, tweeted an image of several large books cut in half, saying he does this in order to make it easier to carry the books around.

He added that because of this habit, a colleague had deemed him a "book murderer."

"Yesterday my colleague called me a 'book murderer' because I cut long books in half to make them more portable. Does anyone else do this? Is it just me?" Christofi wrote.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Christofi's tweet had been responded to more than 7,000 times, and Twitter created a moment around the tweet.

In a matter of hours, Twitter users began a rabid debate about whether the methodology was an acceptable way to read.

"This is terrorism," writer Hend Amry tweeted in response to the image.

Rhiannon L Cosslett, a columnist for the Guardian, tweeted, "I really like this Alex, and am completely ok with it. In fact it undercuts (tish boom) their hubris in writing such a bloody long book in the first place."

Christofi responded to Cosslett, saying that if the book is too big to carry around, he's less likely to read it.

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Writer Calla Wahlquist tweeted that at first she was against the book cutting, but added after realizing she'd avoided certain books due to their size, she was coming around to the idea.

"This seemed like a bad idea until I looked at my bedside table where the Book of Dust has been sitting unread for 2 months because it’s too big to take to work and I don’t want to have to read a different book on the train," Wahlquist wrote.

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Comic artist and writer DJ Holden joked about using a similar tactic on a different medium.

"I do the same with really long dvds!" Holden tweeted.

Christofi did not immediately return a request for comment about the viral tweet.