I bought this paper cutter to cut the spines off of books so that I can scan them. It works pretty well, but it does take some practice.First of all, clean it up when you get it. Mine had some red greasy substance on different parts of it. The grease is also on the blade so you have to be very careful cleaning that. But thoroughly clean all parts before using or you will have a grease spot on your paper!Also, the blade starts cutting at the point furthest away from you and comes forward. That means that it does move the paper somewhat, even if you have the paper holder down and tight.I have so many books and so I decided to start scanning them. I cut off the covers with a box cutter, and then I use this paper cutter to cut the spine off. You have to very careful because some books, like mass-market paperbacks, do not have big margins so there is smaller room for error!When I have thick books, I usually split the book into two or three parts before using this cutter to cut off the spine. I just take the box cutter and open the book to where I want to split it, and then I slice the spine by starting at the top and cutting straight down. It is very easy and will make your cuts with this paper cutter easier.I then use my Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 to scan my books!It's awesome.One more thing....it's great with older books. If I want an older book, I can usually find it cheap on Amazon, and it it's Amazon Prime, even better! I have bought so many books for about $3.00 and then scanned them it! Then I can read it on my Kindle or my iPad or computer.