Are you a spine breaker? Or a dog-earer? Do you expect to keep your books in
pristine condition even after you have read them? Does watching other readers
bend the cover all the way round make you flinch or squeal in pain?
I used to bend the corners of pages to make my place, but I have gotten myself out of that habit, however I do leave them open face down. The spines do get broken, and occasionally pages have a gorgeous quote underlined or starred. I tend to only write notes around poetry.
I believe books are there to be enjoyed, they are not items in a museum. I used to know a guy who barely opened the book to read it as he wanted it to look pristine when he had finished with it, he always looked uncomfortable as he read.
As most of the books I read are second hand, or come from bookcrossing, they have already been read so its not a problem what condition they arrive in.
What makes me annoyed is when the kids at school bend the cover all the way around, its not their book and is just likely to make it break or pages fall out so other people can't enjoy it in the future. And when they write rude words or pictures in it - then they know they are in trouble!
P.S I have a challenge running till Dec 09 based on the BTT question from a couple of weeks ago, about books that have been sitting on your shelf for ages waiting to be read. Thr Rescue Challenge is to save those poor books from being ignored any longer, details can be found here
3 comments:
I have started buying more used books to read and most of them are in pretty good condition. The used book store owner is pretty pick about what he accepts. Books are meant to be enjoyed and I do. :)
Thinking about joining your challenge...have lots of classics that haven't read yet and are gathering dust.
Robin of mytwoblessings
I cannot join your challenge because after that BTT question, I purged my book shelves. Now I only have what I will read.
I agree with you- books are to be enjoyed and one should feel comfortable reading, but at the same time left in good enough condition to go through many more readings. Nice blog!
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