Mariel suggested this week’™s question.
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 have no objection to people doing what ever they like to their own books but I like to keep my books looking as new as possible, although these days it’s not always possible. Some paperback books are so tightly bound that you have to practically force them open to read the pages and sometimes I do admit that the spine may get just a little damaged when I bend the pages back. I hate to see books left open, spine upwards but I’m sad to say that I can be guilty of that too!
But I never, never dog-ear the pages – I cannot bear to see the corners of the pages folded down. Repairing books with sellotape is another terrible thing to do to a book, even worse than underlining in pen. Pencil underlining isn’t too bad and I have even underlined in pen in text books, but never, ever in a novel, even with a pencil.
BooksPlease 
I was surprised to see people in my class with highlighter all through their textbooks – I don’t mind pencil but anything you can’t rub out later is a no-no for me!
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I was textbook highlighter — but never in any other type of book.
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I try to keep my books like new and I admit to cringing when I see others not treat their books well, but I don’t say anything. I keep my thoughts to myself. LOL
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I’m with you. Most of my books look untouched even after reading.
Lezlie
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I dont like dog-earing to keep my spot either. Or writing in novels! Eeek!
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Ugh, tape… that is the absolute worst.
Happy Thursday!
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I guess I’m one of those crazy people who sees books as inanimate objects and that reading is a process and writing in/holding books in a way that creases the spine is just part of that process of dialogue between the author and myself. I definitely found in reading the bulk of these BTT posts that I am in the distinct minority.
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For years I respected books as my Mother taught me to. Never a mark, never an underlining, always a thin bookmark, sometimes a cover… I have emancipated about 5 years ago when I have started to realize that most of the books I am reading I am keeping for my own use and I love to go back to them. I have started using them as journals almost, with thoughts put in the margin, underlining words and sentences, putting down meaning of words that I didn’t know and looked up in the dictionary. They even have dog-ear pages! feathers and leaves saving those precious pages. I do feel guilty about it when I do it but I feel so happy when I get back to the book later and find that particular page so much faster. I get attached to those so much more than when they looked like I just purchase them without even touching them once. I also like when I go to a use bookstore and find remarques penciled out on the side or bottom of pages. The old cookbooks with altered recipes. Some exclamation points or question marks…. It adds to the mystery of previous owners. It also explains my love for antiques and the more marks they have on their surface the more I love them and want to adopt them, giving them another life.
PS: I do use a pencil though if that makes anyone feel better, tee hee hee.
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I can handle books being underlined in pencil- used to do it myself, as a student. Pen I’m not so happy about, although it’s easier to find a passage flipping through. But what really gets me is when people highlight in books with neon yellow (or worse) colors. That’s awful!
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In college, I was the highlighting queen for text books. Now, the inside of the book is sacred – I will only write in a book if the publisher makes a mistake . The outside doesn’t bother me as much. I crack spines, ding covers, etc. But I never dogear – that bothers me as well.
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I couldn’t agree with you more. I like to keep my books in good condition without any cracks to the spine (not always possible if they are secondhand). It distresses me to lend them to people who I know are spine crackers.
I sometimes use sticki-tape on the cover of a book, on the corner or base of the spine if it starts to tear, but never the inside of a book.
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