With War and Peace, why would anyone want to take the whole book for one trip? It's not exactly fast reading, even for a speed reader like me.

For backpacking trips, I sliced up an old ratty pocket edition Bible and carry the section I'm reading in a sandwich bag. Generally only about 1/2 ounce. There's nothing wrong with slicing up a Bible or any other book into sections. The Bible is quite slow reading so is perfect for this purpose.

When traveling, I generally took along a novel in French, since my reading speed in French is a fraction of what it is in English. For a three month's trip, something like Dumas' "Les Trois Mousquetaires" (Three Musketeers) was perfect--I didn't get to the end until almost the end of the flight home from Europe!