I have only ever used straw as mulch, but see no good reason to shred it before composting it. Break the books apart and fluff it up before adding it to the compost pile, but shredding would tend to produce more dust than anything else.

Ok. I won't try it then. Mine just takes forever to decompose and I thought perhaps shredding would be faster. Thank you

Straw does take a long time to decompose in my compost. I tried hitting it with a weedwacker last year and it did work faster. It's just too much bother. Now I just add it as is.

My friend made me a sifter, so now I'll be able to screen it out if I want to.

Karen