Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

New and unread looking forever.  Book abuse is akin to uncleanliness.  When my husband and I were dating, I lent him my hardback of A Prayer for Owen Meany and he returned it to me violated, spine broken, dog earred and had lent it to a former girlfriend. Reader, I broke up with him

While I will not review, for years and years, I have tried to come up with a consistent method of rating books for my database. I never once considered teethmarks. ROTFL!

Research books are treated with kid gloves. Fiction books get lugged around in my purse, battered and rubbed, etc. I don’t dog ear them, but I don’t worry that they look new when I’m done with them.

If I didn’t dog-ear the book, I’d never find my place again.  I tend to read 2 or three books at one time (work related & personal).  All of them get dog-eared for different reasons.  I also tend to read while eating lunch and sometimes get smudge marks on the pages.  Shocking, I know.

Also, I have to add that the worst case of book abuse I have ever seen was last month when I borrowed a Stephanie Laurens book from the library that had all the dirty bits UNDERLINED in PEN and personal sexual comments WRITTEN IN.  The ultimate abuse in my mind AND to top it off,  the writer was clearly over 70 (that shaky old people script) and desperate for oral sex.  My squick alarm was shrieking and I’m open to a lot.

Closetcrafter—LOL!

My ex-husband underlined half the words he read and annotated liberally in the margins, in RED INK, in MY BOOKS. Emphasis on “ex.”

I’ll admit to dog-earing on occasion, but only paperbacks. You can always tell which are my favorites because there’s only about a drop of glue holding the pages in, and some I’ve had to replace because I acutally read them in half.

Hardcovers are another story, though. Don’t mess with my hardcovers… grr…

My books get the normal wear and tear that comes from being carried around in a purse, read over lunch, etc. but I don’t dog-ear or annotate.  Instead, I use small post-its to mark noteworthy passages or jot down notes.

I’ve just broken myself of the habit of leaving books open, face down.
Mostly by making sure that there’s never enough surface space available to do it.
I do scribble notes in margins, but usually in pencil, esp. if it’s a textbook and I’m going to try and sell it back after the semester.

My mom used to tell me that dogearing pages in a book was a sin (she didn’t seriously believe that, of course) and I refuse to loan books to my sister because the first thing she does when getting a new paperback is cracking the spine.  It KILLS me.

On a related note, we had a garage sale about a decade ago and sold a lot of our old children’s books; we had a lady come up to us saying she’d never seen books in suck pristine condition—nary a torn page or crayon mark to be found.

I try not to crack the spine of my paperbacks and hate dog-eared pages, folded pages, unknown stage marks on pages gives me the creeps. I once turned in some books to my local used bookstore and the seller asked me if I had read any of them and said, yes. Yes I did read all of them.

These days, most used bookstores will not take junk (the beat up pages and so on and so forth) to trade for nicer looking books that were well kept by other readers, exception being a very hard to find book like Laurie Breton’s Black Widow selling for $294.99 freaking cents for good condition.

I’ve just broken myself of the habit of leaving books open, face down. Mostly by making sure that there’s never enough surface space available to do it.

XD

I don’t mark books, if only because I don’t generally have any reason to. My books progressively look worse on every read - I’ve read some books a dozen times or more. My Life of Johnson and Telegraph Book of Obituaries are in much worse shape than, say, the latest Christine Dodd. But I’m more likely to re-read non-fiction.

The marauding barbarians who deface poor, defenseless books make me cringe!

One terrible day, upon getting into my car after a shopping spree at B&N, my overflowing bag tipped and spilled one of my precious new books onto the asphalt, crumpling and dirtying the unbound edge.

I went back inside and bought another copy.

My mother is a binding-breaker and will not borrow a book from me unless she is about to die from book withdrawal because she feels she has to read them cracked opened no more than an inch. (Which I don’t understand. I manage to open them up without snapping their poor little spines.)

I have books I’ve read 20 times that look like they just came off the press. The more precious they are, the better I want to take care of them.

My keeper shelf looks like it’s ready for a recycling bin.  Live bunnies, every single one of them. 
The good news is that since I’m a very fast reader, the ones that go to trade or a UBS usually only have one or two dog ears…

cutting into books to create safe places for hiding valuables

Or cutting into books to create book art, like this. It’s beautiful, but I was brought up to think of books as my friends. In other words: no leaving them face down; always turn the pages from the lower corner of the page; no writing on books; no folding or bending of books. I have had a few disasters when I tried scanning a book, or opening it a bit wider so that I could prop it open and take notes from it. I felt really, really bad when their spines gave way. “Books are my friends!” I thought, “I must never, ever, break my friends’ spines!”.

Dog earing, notes in the margins, post-it notes galore, this is the life of my books.  I am an English Education Major and I can say, with complete confidence, that messed up written in books are the sign of a good reader.  It means you’re interacting with the text.  That being said, I usually buy two copies of books I REALLY love, one I can treat like crap and the other that can sit nicely on my shelf for future generations to stare in awe at.

I’m a bathtub reader, so a lot of my books tend to have water damage. It’s a huge problem, so I avoid taking hardcover into the tub with me.

Usually I can reduce water damage by putting the book back between other books on the shelf when I’m done, which prevents the wrinkling caused by moisture.

I’m very careful with my books—want them all pretty forever. No dog-earing, no spine-breaking, no personal sexual notes in the margins. (that’s what notebooks are for)

Conversely, it delights me when a reader brings me a tattered, ragged, water-bloated, falling-apart copy of one of my titles for me to sign. It just looks well-read and loved to me.

I don’t hesitiate to dog-ear the last page I read in a bookmark emergency, but I don’t do it as a long-term marker of good pages/pages to avoid.

Sometimes I’ll underline a sentence if it really needs it, but I tend to go through stages of how much I do that, and it’s been several years since the last time I did so regularly.

I have two truly beat-up paperbacks: Don Quixote and Les Miserables, which probably take more abuse because their size makes them fit less neatly into the carriers in which they have been stuffed, and because books that size have to be carried around longer per read.  Don Quixote lived in my purse for several months before I even read it the first time in seventh grade, because my parents told me not to read it until I graduated from my school’s reading program.  (It was based on number of books, not number of pages or reading level, so they didn’t want me reading 1060 pages that only counted the same as the 116 page Baby Sitters Club book that the next kid was reading, until I finished the program.)  That paperback has been retired to the “sentimental value” shelf and replaced by a good, strong hardback for future reads.

(Verification word: hard 37.  What?  I didn’t mention Clerks.)

Spines are made to be broken, IMO.  My partner reads without breaking spines, so it’s a good thing we usually read different books.  I don’t use bookmarks, I just leave the book face down open on the page I’m reading.

When I’m reading for analysis, I dog-ear important pages, and I write in them.  My one quirk, though, is that I’m absolutely incapable of writing in books in pen.  I can’t highlight, and I can’t use ball-point or felt-tipped pens.  I have to use pencil.  Even for books that I will never ever sell, I use pencil.  Annoying when I can’t find a pencil, but I still won’t use a pen for annotations.

I once read at UCLA Special Collections Maria Edgeworth’s first edition of Jane Austen’s “Persuasion” with Edgeworth’s marginalia in pencil.  That blew my mind.  She like Wentworth’s letter, too!

I want pristine expensive hardcover with gilt edges copies of Austen’s novels to read for pleasure, so I don’t have to read all my notes when I read the copies I do have.  But it’s not like I’m going to erase my notes.

That’s just the way my keepers are - Velveteen Rabbits. Loved and showing the love. I’m not terribly hard on them, so the ones I don’t keep have only been read once and aren’t shabby.

I dog ear and lay face up and if the spine cracks, it cracks, but I don’t write on them, get them wet or get food on them.

Anything that’s not mass market paperback that I own, gets the white glove treatment.

Did anyone notice this line at the end of the book abuse article SBSarah linked to:  “And there was no outcry in 2003 when 2.5 million romance novels from the publisher Mills & Boon were buried to form the noise-reducing foundation of a motorway extension in Manchester, England.”  Does anyone have any insight/memories/links to produce to explain what in the hell he’s talking about?

Does anyone have any insight/memories/links to produce to explain what in the hell he’s talking about?

Yes. Here’s a news item about how the books were used ‘in the preparation of the top layer of the West Midlands motorway’. It wasn’t just romances that were used, though:

for every mile of motorway approximately 45,000 books were needed.

“We want to reassure Mills & Boon readers that we’re not just picking on their favourite books - other books are down there too.”

You can check out this link for details. From another article I read but can’t find now, I understand that other books were read, though Mills & Boon made the most press.

Interesting use of recycling, I suppose.

i’m a messy reader.. usually i am very careful with a book the first time i read it in case i want to trade it in at the used book store. after that if its a keeper, i’ll dogear passages i want to refer back to when reading another in the series, i’ll eat spaghetti while i’m reading ( OH NO!!), in harlequins the first thing i do is rip out the cardboard advertisement in the middle of the book..those things irritate me!

i actually dont mind getting a well read copy of a book at the used bookstore, it’s entertaining to run across someones grocery list, phone numbers and doodles. (as long as there are no boogers stuck in between pages, i’m ok)

I’m more toward the neat side of the reader spectrum, but not quite to the point of keeping my books museum quality. I lug books around in my purse all the time, so a few edge dings or cover wear is inevitable. But I never (everEverEVER) dog-ear or mark them up inside or anything. That’s what bookmarks and post-it notes are for!! Most of my books could go to the used book store being rated anywhere from “very good” to “like new.”

My husband is a dog-ear-reader and it drives me nuts. Luckily, our taste in books is quite different, so we don’t share many of them.

Also, I’m very picky about loaning out my books because I know not everyone is careful. I have to trust you a LOT to lend you one something from my keeper shelf and if you don’t return it to me in a timely fashion and in pretty much the same condition it was when it left my house, you’ll never get your grubby little hands on another volume from my personal library. ;-)

The only time I ever write in my books is when I’m correcting grammatical or typographical errors.  They bug me so much that I have to get out the pencil right now and fix it.

I never dog ear, unless I’m in a bookmark emergency (but even then I’m more likely to tear a page out of the mini-notebook in my purse).  My books do get normal wear and tear - I don’t try to leave the spines looking pristine, or anything, but I like my books to be… pretty.  I’ve been known to tape covers rips very carefully with book tape and spend half an hour with a hairdryer after accidental water damage on the cheapest paperback.

Keishon said:

These days, most used bookstores will not take junk (the beat up pages and so on and so forth) to trade for nicer looking books that were well kept by other readers, exception being a very hard to find book like Laurie Breton’s Black Widow selling for $294.99 freaking cents for good condition.

Keishon,

And might I add that that’s $294.99 freaking cents more than I ever made on that book?  Every time I see some used bookstore trying to sell it for such a ridiculous price, I want to scream and yell and tear out my hair.  NOBODY is stupid enough to pay that much for it.  If they are, they deserve to have all the pages fall out on them (and I can pretty much guarantee they will!).

Oh, and on the original topic, if there’s nothing around to mark the pages with (a sales receipt, an envelope, a bill I forgot to pay), I admit it, I bend down the corner of the page.  I’ve also been known to crack the spine if I’m eating and reading at the same time and the freaking book won’t stay open, but keeps falling in my plate of lo mein and pork fried rice.

I know.  I’m a heretic.

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman has a rather wonderful essay on the different ways you can love a book, from the carnal to the courtly: carnal book-lovers dog-ear and set books open on their spine and splash spaghetti sauce on them while courtly lovers don’t even dent the spine and would rather die than dog-ear. It’s a very lovely essay, much more beautifully written than this bald summary. I’m a carnal reader myself. I’m all about the dog-earing and the occasional highlighting of paragraphs or lines that I liked, and pencil-scrawled exclamation marks scattered in the margins. I get it from my mother: I like the idea of going back to a book and remembering my or another reader’s reactions to it the first time round. My old copy of Pride and Prejudice has hearts scribbled in the margin at the bit where Elizabeth meets Darcy at Pemberley.

I never dog-ear, instead using an assortment of junk mail, those cards that fall out of magazines, and bookmarks picked up at writers conferences to mark my place.  However, I don’t worry if the spine gets broken or the cover gets a bit scuffed.  I like my books to look read.

I never write in or highlight fiction, but nonfiction research materials for my writing get treated just like college textbooks, with highlighting and notes everywhere.

Having said which, I have about 4 copies of my favourite book (P. G. Wodehouse’s Summer Moonshine): one which has been read to pieces and needed to be rebound, one to lend to people, one extra, and one beautiful and pristine hardback not to read but just to keep on my bookshelf and love forever without ever even touching a page.

I’m one of those who likes to keep my books pristine, but I go one step further: I don’t like using a library or borrowing books from friends, because when I borrow books, I constantly think about “where has this book been?” Were they reading it in the bathroom? Were they reading it while picking their nose? Did their dog or cat pee on it?

To take that even one step farther, this is also the reason why, if I buy a book at the store, I reach back and pick up the copy that’s at the back of the stack. I’ve seen people who stand there (or sit there) at the bookstore and read the books before they buy them, and again, I always find myself wondering where their hands have been, or whether they’re sneezing on the book, or bending the pages. Especially if I’m going to buy a book, I want it pristine.

Sick, I know. I don’t really consider myself a big neatness freak, but for some reason, with books, I’m obsessed about it.

my mom’s a librarian who instilled in me a great love of books (damn, that sounds pompous), so it hurts me to dog-ear a book. nevertheless, if it’s some old thing i picked up at a book sale, or a book that already has a dog-ear mark where i need a placemarker, i’ll do it. almost never in a hardcover though. and as for writing…the only times i’ll write in a library book is when there is a HUGE GLARING TYPO that would drive me insane. say, the wrong “their/there/they’re” or the wrong character’s name or the wrong “phase/faze”. my mom and i have been known to get up in the middle of a sentence (which we normally would NEVER do), find a pen, fix the word, and then continue. i’ll write in my own books for a class, especially if it’s a boring as hell book (aka Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” which i hope never to encounter again) that i can’t focus on unless i commit myself to finding important phrases. i’ll only write in pencil though, cuz someone else might want them someday.
:-)

Yes, I went to find my copy of Ex Libris, because I remembered the beginning of that essay by Anne Fadiman.

“When I was eleven and my brother was thirteen, our parents took us to Europe. At…Copenhagen ...Kim left a book facedown on the bedside table. The next afternoon, he returned to find the book closed, a piece of paper inserted to mark the page, and the following note, signed by the chambermaid resting on its cover;

SIR, YOU MUST NEVER DO THAT TO A BOOK.”

Is there a secret school of Book Protocol that chambermaids must attend before they get their bed-making badge?

Ah, I was pounded into “no dog earing” by my second grade teacher, who was probably not nearly the terrifying harridan I remember.  I just cannot dog ear—ever.  And I also have shelves full of pristine 1st editions with dust jackets lovingly covered by new Brodart sleeves.  But I also have books that I read while I eat, carry around in my purse and generally don’t treat with the same respect.  Do not, however tell my best friend I actually do that, I have just broke her of the dog earing habit.

I am a most decidedly carnal book-lover. The more I read (and love, and live with) a book, the more dog-eared and scuffed and cracked it gets. Virtually all my books are the cheaper mass-market paperbacks or trades anyway.

Oh, just the idea of a dog-ear made my brain throw up.

A cracked binding…oh man, that poor book! I don’t even want to go into more abuse. Thank god for being able to double up on Lexapro.

:::grins:::

I can’t believe how many responses have been sparked by this topic! Clearly we feel passionately about our books!

So here’s my comment:  I never loan out books anymore, and have gone so far as to buy additional copies of books for friends to read rather than loan them my copy.  I’ve had too many bad experiences with loaning books.  Either they don’t come back at all, or they come back damaged and I have to work at not resenting my friend for not taking proper care of my babies.

I also have a proliferation of bookmarks scattered around the house, in case I’m reading something and need to mark the page and do something else.  I’m a recovering dog-earer (over 30 years without abusing a book!), and will never, ever do that to a book again.

Finally, here’s a word in praise of sticky flags for marking research books and even passages in favorite novels.  They don’t mess up the page or leave permanent marks.

If it’s a hardback, it’s more likely to have some food on it because they stay open the best when placed on a table, but I don’t dog-ear them.

Paperbacks are dog-eared if I remember to mark my place, but I’m a freak who remembers numbers very easily, and I can generally go back to my last page read, even when reading multiple books at a time.

I don’t actively set out to destroy my books, but I’m not going to cry over a broken spine.

I guess I would be a carnal book lover, but one who’s kind of lazy about it.

Well, I happen to be a courtly reader.  Back in my teens when I was a rabid quote collector I used to dogear pages with great lines, so that meant I needed alternate methods for figuring out where I was.  I lose bookmarks constantly so I use whatever is at hand (although I fold over post-its after one time it removed some of the print).  I tend not to break spines, although I didn’t notice this until someone pointed it out to me a few years ago. 
I figure to each his own, but I cannot stand to be reading a book with someone else’s notes in it, so if you are lending it to me (or borrowing mine) no writing please.

A note on stickys:

Post-it paper stickys can be removed freely without damaging the page.

Post-it flags have a different adhesive that can tear the page and sometimes remove the ink.

We used to have to hide the flags from the attorneys when I worked in the library at a law firm.

I love to dog-ear.  Based on the condition of my books, you might think I LIVE to dog-ear.  You might be right.  I dog-ear my dog-ears.  I might just fold those puppies down two or three times.  And I don’t do the dainty dog-ear, neatly tucking down 1/2 inch of paper just on the corner. Hell no—I grab the page about half-way into the spine and fold it down.  Aaaaah!  Now THAT’S a satisfying dog-ear.  And since I have this really disturbing (to other drivers) habit of reading while I drive, I’ve got some books in which every page in a 40-50 page section is dog-eared. 

AND I crack spines.  Crack those babies open!  Show me all the striations.  The book must lay flat.  None of this careful handling that interferes with my ability to see the the words crammed into the center crease.  Nosiree…CRACK!

AND I write in my books!  *gasp*  I underline words I don’t know, I circle things that piss me off or jerk me out of the story, I red-line grammatical errors (always entertaining the thought of sending the marked-up book back to the publisher), I bracket favorite quotes.  Heck…if it’s a book in a series, I even write a brief synopsis of the book in the inside front cover.  How else can I know which In Death book has Eve diving in front of the stunner to save Summerset’s life…or which book has Roarke displaying uncharacteristic and yet endearing ineptitude with a gas grill.

AND probably half of my hardbacks are missing their frickin’ dust jackets.  I hate those damn things.  I take them off to “protect” them…and then just wind up losing the bastards.  Let’s just ditch the dust jackets and print the artwork right on the cover of the book.

AND, for the piece de resistance, I have been known to entertain myself by using nail clippers and cuticle nippers and household scissors on the front covers of my books.  These books tend not to get selected by the used-book stores when I take my dross in for trade.  Gee…I don’t know why. *rolls eyes*

So there.  I am the master book-abuser, and frankly, I love that about myself.  ;-)

I am also a spine-cracking, dog-earing reader. I feel wierd holding an $8 paperback (usually a $4 paperback since I buy practically everything used) in a way that would keep the spine completely pristine. It’s an $8 paperback. Considering how most people treat far more expensive possessions I don’t see it as a big deal.

I lay books open on the couch all the time. I guess there’s never been a book that I’ve read so many times that it’s been completely demolished by my reading habits because looking at my shelves I don’t see anything blatantly ruined.

Although I do admit that when I picked up a used copy of Cole’s “Hunger Like No Other” for a friend I kept that copy and gave her my more abused one instead. And waay back in the day when I used to collect Fabio covers (yes, some of us did do that) I was very careful with those books, although I did dog ear them. Kinda wish I still had those books, but they got sold in the great “funding grad school” cleanout in 97.

I don’t mind dogearing books from the library but anything I actually own definitly has no dogears or cracked spines, I have a wide variety of bookmarks. Of course considering I like to read in a variety of places my books do not always maintain their good looks.

i was just wondering what teeth marks at the top and bottom of pages actually are for…frustratingly biting the book??....happily biting the book??..yes???both??a metaphor??

Marianne McA, I had the exact same recognition. Either there is a conspiracy amongst European chambermaids, or Mr. Schott needs to read Ms. Fadiman’s essay on “borrowing” the words of others.

As to the main question… I’ve never had a problem leaving a book face-down, but I don’t like dog-earing. My favorite book marks are either Post-its or squares of (unusued) toilet paper. The latter happens because I read in the bathroom.

I am an abuser too.  I dog ear, lay flat and crack the spines of my paperbacks.  I am more careful w/my hardbacks.  Most come w/a dustjacket that I use as the bookmark.  My DH yells when I put them face down, so I don’t do that to his books.

I do not write in my books (either hardback or paperback).

I did treat my textbooks differently.  I always bought new and at the time planned on never getting rid of them.  It is now 20 years later and I’ve donated some to our HS library and the ones the library rejected to Goodwill.

Sam

Shannon, it’s been my experience that teeth marks come from puppies.  I had a beloved copy of Walden that was chewed all to hell and falling apart.  Still, I couldn’t part with it up for years…

My solution to book abuse—I mean, since I left college, when I was highlight and annotation crazy—came in the form of bookmarks.  I have quite a collection and actually get very anal about them, i.e., picking out the most appropriate one for each book I’m reading.

If I actually knew any of you, I wouldn’t be confessing this.

Wry Hag, that’s not so strange about the bookmarks.  I have one I bought at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in the mid 80’s that’s still my bookmark reserved for my most important books—a religious tome, a comprehensive history of the founding of the American Navy, a political science treatise.

For novels I take whatever’s at hand, as long as it won’t hurt the book.

I can’t intentionally harm a book. So I won’t be writing anything in it, leave marks or dog-ears. I can always find my way through a book, anyway. When I read how people used books as a fuel during the war, I feel awful as much for books as for people…
However, “intentionally” is the operational word here. Since I read everywhere, especially if the book so entrancing I cannot part with it until it’s finished, natural wear and tear do occur. Also, drops of rain, smudges from food and some consequences from keeping a book in a purse with lots of other stuff. I do feel slightly upset about those, but do not lose my sleep over it.

There’s clearly something about European chambermaids—Anne Fadiman relates a similar story in one of the essays in Ex Libris. Her family returned to their hotel, and her brother found the book he’d left open and face-down on the bed closed, with a slip of paper marking his spot. On the paper, the chambermaid had written, “You must never do that to a book.”

Maybe there’s some secret chambermaid society for the protection of books in Europe. They lie in wait, then swoop in to save the poor volumes from the ravages of their uncaring readers.

I’m definitely an abusive reader—but I have my limits, especially when people borrow my books. It’s fine to write in books. IN PENCIL ONLY. It’s fine to dog-ear pages. BUT ONLY THE CORNER. You may leave the book open face-down, but if you fold back the cover, your life is forfeit. Tearing, ripping, dripping, and deliberate drenching are also capital punishments. If you are splashed by a passing vehicle while clutching one of my books, or accidently get water on it while reading in the bath, a profuse apology will suffice. Tea and/or coffee stains are greeted with raised eyebrows and bared teeth. Chocolate stains are rarely tolerated.

Of course, I’ve done all of these things, and I even bled all over one of my books as a child, but if it’s my own wear and tear, I’m a little more tolerant. My most adored books are obvious—they’re the ones with the fuzzy pages and battered covers, and I usually have multiple copies, b/c I can’t give up my old copy, but I’m afraid it’ll disintegrate.

I never dog-ear pages (like Rosemary, I seem to have decent page-number recall), though I have been known to lie books flat, and they tend to get environmental damage from being taken anywhere and everywhere (I’m not sure if the fingerprints on every page of my copy of The Hobbit were from childhood Oreo snacking or reading it outdoors sitting in a tree).

I tend to only annotate non-fiction, as it usually needs it more (ie, “No, leave the water out of this meat loaf recipe or it’ll be soggy”), though I did once add a note to a friend’s already-annotated copy of The Tough Guide to Fantasyland.

Also, regarding markers—check out Bookdarts: http://www.bookdarts.com/

Also the offspring of a librarian, so taught young to never, ever write in books.  This has been difficult to overcome at times…say in class when an instructor directs students to highlight…for me it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard.

Fortunately, the vast majority of my books are paperbacks.  I never dog-ear any more.  And while I don’t abuse or write in books, they tend to be lived in.  A paperback goes most places with me…so they often get placed face down, once in a while a small spot of food due to eating while reading, and the occassional spot (or two) of water because I take a book on morning walks (if raining the book gets a plastic bag).  Bookmarks?  Whatever is handy…bits of ribbon, post-its, scratch paper, used envelopes, unused tissue or TP, any handy thing that won’t damage the book.  And honestly, my used books are in very good to excellent condition.

PS Sister-in-law once said she hoped her children would be readers.  I asked if they often see her reading…since the answer was no, I doubt her boys read much.  The moral of the story…be proud to be a reader, it’s good for your children.  Well read children are more intelligent and interesting.

I break spines,dog ear, grafitti in the margins and when the scene is really tense, I tend to rip through the edge of the page i am reading with my fingernails. By the time I am finished, that book has been thoroughly used and abused, but the way I figure it, it’ll only be that great of read a few times before I give it away, trade it in, or put it on the keeper shelf and not reread it for years. Books are made to be read how you want to read them, not to look good on a shelf. Otherwise, we’d still be buying leatherbound vellum (a more enduring medium than paper). Speaking as one who has worked in libraries for the past 4 years, I don’t mind repairing books because then I know that the patron used the book I spent all that time getting ready for circulation anyway. And if a friend wants to borrow a book from me, chances are they love em enough to put up with my stained, warped, torn and dog-eared books enough to see past the surface and enjoy the words within.

Fiction for fun? If I like a book, I’ll reread, so the spines tend to get a bit loose and wobbly. Drives my husband crazy.

If I’m reading for work or research? I write, I highlight, I underline, I dogear. How else am I supposed to remember how I responded and why?

validator: course88. Exactly. It’s why I had such good grades.

I have a strict rule when I loan out one of my books: if you dog ear or break the spine, your life is forfeit. It seems to be working out well so far.

I do have some books with broken spines. I’ll admit to that. If they get to a point where they seem to be falling apart, I use the wonder and beauty of book tape to repair them.

As for dog ears? Never. You all should read the adorable picture book called Mr. Wiggles Book. In it, he talks about all the things you should not do to a book. I’ve used it a few times in storytimes. I have dropped food a time or two onto a book, but I try my best not to. When it comes to bookmarks, I have a bow tie box full and have been known th match the color of the tassle to the cover of the book. I know, it’s an illness.

The only times I’ve written in a book that wasn’t a textbook was to make changes in grammar or any other mistakes I may find - in pen. That way, the next reader won’t be bothered by it.

To me, books are most valuable for what they contain. I’m a messy, mass-market abuser. Dog ears, face down and open, dropped in the bathtub…everything happens to those. However, I keep the hardcovers and art books as nice as possible.

Being a proofreader by nature, I, like many others, will correct mistakes—neatly.

However, when I’m lent a book, I treat it like ancient scrolls. I’ve gone so far as to replace books that I’ve accidentally damaged. If I broke a friend’s vase, I’d replace it. Seems like good manners, eh?

I think that marks in books are a sign that they have been well-used and well-loved.  In the same way that my favorite cookbooks are splattered with food, my favorite novels have dog-eared pages, broken spines, etc. 

When it comes to reading in order to study, I find marking books an invaluable aid to learning.  In fact, I always liked it in college when I bought a used book that someone else had annotated, since it I got to see their insight into the material.  Sometimes I disagreed with it, but at least it made me think.

I’ll eat over books, mark pages by folding them, and read in the bath - and the shower - but the only times I actually mark up a book is when it’s really, really awful. As in, egregious spelling and grammar mistakes. My copy of LKH’s last book is, I assure you, densely marked.

I think the nastiest tone I’ve ever heard out of Candy was when I asked if it’d be okay if I dog-eared her ARC of The Sharing Knife. Yee-ouch! I think I also put it face-down while open - I’m amazed I didn’t get thrown out at that point.

Selling my first book was fun. But when my author copies arrived, and my sister-in-law asked me to autograph one for her, I came to a horrible realization—I had to write in a book! Something I had never done. Something I had been taught was just wrong.

I got over it. But it was bizarre.

Kate

Kate—ME TOO!  My first autograph was agonizing.  I can’t stand writing in books.  I’d like to say it’s gotten easier, but it still makes me cringe a little inside.  (I autographed one to a good friend with, “Don’t you hate people who write in books?  Me, too.”  I have to laugh at the compulsion or it will own me…)  Even with books that I need to label with my name, I do it on the back cover, at the very bottom.  Seems less noticable there.

That being said, I’m not a careful reader.  I crack the spine and rip out those annoying middle cardboard-thingies.  (Yeah, like I’m REALLY gonna win a cruise from Harlequin on one of those things?)  The spine is only bent enough to allow me to hold it open with one hand, and really it’s dictated by how much my hands are hurting that day.  On a good day, I can read a book and leave it pristine.  Other days, I’ll bust the hell outta the spine to make it easier to hold open one-handed.  I’m ALWAYS reading, I feel naked without a book, and I need that other hand free to cook, do laundry, or whatever.

Another reason my books get beat up is that they tend to live in my trunk, my purse, or the floorboard of the car so I’ve always got 2 or 3 with me all the time.  If I have to wait somewhere, I’m prepared!  I also have a crazy-good memory for page numbers, so even though I tend to read 2 to 5 books at a time, I don’t tend to bother with bookmarks.

I’m a bathroom reader too (we call it the “Reading Room” here—really, doesn’t everyone read in there?) and I put books face-down soimetimes, so if there’s a spot of water on the sink counter or something, well, that’s life.  Same with food and fingerprints, etc—I try to keep them neat, but it’s not the end of the world if somethign happens to it.

My books definitely look read when I’m done with them, but I don’t really care.  I’m a book hoarder, and a serial re-reader, so I never turn ‘em over to the UBS anyway.  Well, unless the book sucked.  *snicker*

HOWEVER.

I never, ever, EVER dog-ear—absolutely can’t stand that—and I never write in books.  I absolutely HATE coming across “corrections” in the text, in pencil or pen.  It’s so jarring!  I might’ve been able to overlook the error (... okay, that was a lie, stop laughing, Cat) but I hate the notations that don’t match the font.  And the shit in the margins?  TEH EVIL.  Drives me nuts.  I open a book to read the author’s words, not some random reader’s.

So I’m not a courtly book-lover, and not a—what was it? not passionate, er, can’t remember—one either.  What’s that make me?

(Besides, apparently, a good role-model for my sons, because they ALWAYS see mommy with a book or three.)

Carnal!  That’s the word.  You’d think an author of erotic romances could’ve remembered that one.  Anyway, I’m not that either.  What kind of reader am I?  Whoever quoted that saying, what’s the middle ground?  Confused?

I love, love, love books and I hate it when people dog ear or write on the pages. To me, it’s sacrilege! I never throw my books away or give them away. I’m ridiculously careful with loaned books.

I do have one horrible confession to make ... I tend to crack the spines on paperbacks. I don’t really understand it. With some books there is no problem, while others crack the first time I open them. I hate it, but I don’t know how to keep it from happening.

I am shocked at how many people break the spines!  I never do that.  I do occasionally dogear a page, but I only do that with books from the UBS or library.  Books I buy new stay new forever- no matter if I read in the bathtub or from my purse.  Even writing in text books upsets me (though my friend and I marked up my driver’s ed book with all sorts of sarcastic comments.  It was fun.)  In college, I would sometimes take note in the book, but generally only with books I was going to sell back at the end of the semester. 

There are only two people who really ever borrow my books.  The first one is M, she and I share romance novels and we both try to keep our books in mint condition.  The other is my boyfriend, C, who is a spine-breaker, dogearer, book stainer.  I cringe when I lend him books, and I try to only lend him UBS copies or hardcovers.

With hardcovers, does anyone else remove the paper cover before they read them?  I hate hardback covers, and I generally leave them on a high shelf where they can’t get hurt.

So Fermat’s marginalia is the most famous of all time!

The strangest thing I ever saw in a book was the dedication page of one of Flinders Petrie’s later books.  I borrowed it from the PCL last semester, and someone had written in pencil, in that beautiful copperplate handwriting that no one learns anymore, directly over the dedication: “Petrie never even met him!”

Truly weird.  I’ve been wondering ever since if that was some old archaeologist gossip.

Oh, and I only ever wrote in my math textbooks or greek literature books.  I didn’t underline in the greek lit books, I drew a vertical line next to interesting paragraphs.  Underlining makes it hard for me to read.

But I wrote all over the math books!  Notes on theorems and proofs and things that the professor said in class, and I solved all of the problems in the margins.  But I never, ever write or dogear any other kind of textbook.

My neighbor borrowed a hardcover novel that I had not yet read. I lent it with my blessing; God knows my TBR pile is huge. Roughly six months later, she returned it…with the top right corner of the cover chewed. By her dog. Complete with teeth marks. She apologized, and I said it was okay.

I sort of lied. But she’s my neighbor, so I decided to be nice.

But if it were me, I would have bought her a clean copy of the book. Sheesh.

I feel that it’s a little silly to let the medium (i.e. books) get in the way of the message (I.e. the actual story). Books are transitory, you can have a million different versions of the same story, but the words on the page are the same (usually, barring author annotation ^_^). If dogearing is what you have to do to enjoy your story, then so be it! and if not, power to you too. The point is enjoying what’s on the pages, not worrying about the state of those pages. We used to be an oral culture, and now that everything is written down, suddenly the paper is so important… why? I feel, sometimes, given the rabidity of the pristine-book-owner that I’m talking to, that this bookworship almost prophanes the importance of the writing. Maybe that’s just me :) Librarian here, by the by, so I’m around books most of the day. I’d much prefer to let a somewhat careless teenager read the new Dean Koontz hardcover and perhaps ding some of the corners, dogear a bit, than have them not read it at all for fear of damaging the book. Which is more important, at the end of the day?

Fic_kitty, it seems to me that treating books carelessly could be seen as part of a wider issue. We live in a throw-away society where waste disposal is an increasing problem (in the UK the government has begun to take waste minimisation seriously because we’re running out of landfill space).

We also hear constant comments about the breakdown of society and lack of respect for others. Clearly what someone does with their own books is their own business, but it seems to me that defacing, writing on or otherwise damaging library books is a matter that goes beyond one individual’s personal preferences. The books are bought from limited funds, and if they’re destroyed quickly, there won’t be enough money to keep replacing them. If they look really tatty and foul, some readers may not want to borrow them, so they’ll miss out on the reading experience. And it seems to me that wanting a reading experience unadorned by other people’s comments or traces of their meals isn’t an unreasonable expectation, just as a wish to be able to sit on public benches which are free from graffiti and chewing-gum doesn’t seem like an unreasonable desire.

Obviously there are different types of library, with different purposes, but libraries are not just a source of new, easily-replaced books. They often hold books which cannot be replaced. Some books go out of print relatively quickly while there are still a fair number of readers interested in them. One problem that researchers of popular fiction face is the fact that these books have often been treated as transitory entertainment and have literally ended up being treated as trash. Makes it hard to find copies of older books to study.

I find it odd that so many people are willing to treat library books poorly, but not their own.

I dunno, but it seems to me that you should treat the things that you do not own better.  Don’t you think that other people would like to read the book that you are borrowing?  And as far as dog-earing library books, have you ever looked around and seen ALL THE DAMN bookmarks that are provided?  I can gurantee you that there is a big ass stack of them at the check-out counter.

The books I treat like crap are the books I own, not the ones I borrow.

(Sorry.  Didn’t mean for it to turn bitter.  I really do want people to use the library, but c’mon.  Have a little common sense and realize that people are going to use the book after you, and no matter how high your taxes are, you don’t own the library books.)

A “well-loved”, worn-out-through-reading book is one thing; a book that goes unread and used as a doorstop or to prop up a table is quite another.  I’ve seen the latter, and IMO somebody who destroys books like that should lose library priviledges, no matter if they pay for the cost of replacing the books or not.

Books are not always transitory.  $6 paperbacks are one thing, but signed limited edition hardcovers may go for $75-$100 new and much more than that after time.  I’m pretty sure nobody who buys one of those for themselves is gonna mark it up with highlighter and pen, and I’d hope somebody who got an expensive LE hardback as a gift, if they were not inclined to treasure it, would sell it on Ebay or something instead of abusing it.

In response to Rosemary’s and Laura’s comments, I think there is an enormous difference between defacing a book to the point of it no longer being usable and simple wear that occurs during regular reading. I of course agree that serious defacement, like writing in the margins or over the actual text of library books, tearing of pages, removal of covers… that sort of thing is disrespectful and should be discouraged strongly (to say the least). On the other hand, creasing the spine or dogearring a text are actions which, while they may reduce the asthetic value of a book, do not prevent the book from being used as it ought. Of course outright breaking a spine, especially in paperback books, can be troublesome, with the shoddy construction of some of today’s paperbacks. Having pages falling out would fall under the auspice of things which reduce the useability of a book :P There is also a vast difference between a book which is rare or out of print, and one which is in current production and easily available; I am of the opinion that no book should ever go out of print, at least not entirely, but unfortunately economics would argue otherwise. In those cases, care should be taken to preserve copies of the text, because the knowledge is not available any other way. In those cases, I very much approve of electronic copies being made, as in the Gutenburg project online. This sort of backup, so to speak, not only ensures that the loss of great knowledge is a bit harder, it also disseminates the works among a much wider audience than would otherwise have it available to them.

My conclusion is this; it would be nice if everybody used a bookmark, and indeed, I should probably use them more often myself. But the simple truth is that people are far more likely to dogear to keep their place in a book. The same goes for not eating while reading, or bathing, or any other action which could, potentially, cause irreperable damage to the book. The fact remains that at the end of the day, the enjoyment one receives from reading should not be occluded by overt concern for the condition of a book, if that is not where your proclivities lay. When you check a book out from a library, there is a certain concession you have to make that this is not your personal book, and thus you cannot have any expectations about the overall condition of the novel. You can expect that it will be in fairly good condition, definitely readable and free from nasty stains or missing pages, because that is part of a librarian’s job, but dogears and creased spines are par for the course. In personal books, I feel personal discretion should determine how you take care of what is yours; I suppose my biggest issue is when people project their own book practices on others, and look down on those who may not take such care. Their book is not your book, and they really do have the right to treat it however they like. It’s a matter of common sense, and personal taste, as long as outright destruction is not taking place.

I hope that makes any kind of sense :P

I wonder if we did a study if where everyone would show up on the spectrum.

To respond to the original question I tend to leave my books pristine.  I read them while eating, on the cough, in bed, etc etc.  I do not read them in the bath tub, it smacks of risky behavior, the splashing water, the risk of drowning the book.  ::delicate shudder::

I distinctly recall going to a convention and apologizing to an author for the abused condition of a book (it was read many times), she raised her eyebrow in my direction and asked was I sure I didn’t just pick it up that day.  I had to point out the frayed and thin edges of the paper from frequent rereading.  Then I confessed that she was the only author who had ever written a book so beloved to me that I read it enough to lose not only the cover but also the first and last 3 pages.  sniffle.  She is also the reason why I buy two copies when I particularly like an authors work.  Saves me the pain of loss.

  However, I will admit I do dog ear pages while reading.  Attempts to utilize bookmarks have failed miserably, even when I like the bookmark because they are generally lost.  I do not lend books to my friends anymore.  I don’t want to see the poor violated things once they are returned to me.  Weep, weep

On the other hands, textbooks and nonfiction can be written in and high-lighted because I generally am using it for study.  Library books (when I used to depend on them) were read and briskly returned, occasional dog-ear, but generally returned in the condition in which they were loaned.  I think it inappropriate to write in or highlight things that are not yours.

“Well read children are more intelligent and interesting.”

In my experience, people who struggle with literacy can gain positive qualities from that experience. For one thing, to survive school at all, they need to be tremendously hard workers. My brother and my father would also be great thinkers - because they can’t readily assimilate information from the printed page and then regurgitate it easily, the things they have learnt are hard won, and they understand them in a more profound way. 

And isn’t an interesting person just someone who is engaged with the world? If you love your sport, or are terrific with animals or can’t do sums but can entertain the whole class with impromptu impressions of the headmaster - isn’t that interesting also?

Yeah…I think I’m pretty weird with my books!  I H*A*T*E a book with the spine cracked.  I very rarely EVER dog-ear pages (and if I do, it’s usually a library book…isn’t that terrible of me?) 

I loaned some books to my best friend one time.  One came back in PIECES, pages falling out.  The other had a cracked spine and was dirty.  It’s a good thing she was my BEST friend.  Otherwise, I would have had to dump her all together!

Dog ears? oh definately! I read them in the bathtub and they get wet along the bottom sometimes…most of the time. I don’t write in them, correcting the spelling and grammar…that’s just asshole behavior. Though I don’t know about you all, if I give a book as a gift I usually write a message for the giftee on the endpaper.
I figure if I buy a book it’s mine to do with as I please.
Never do I do these things with a library book, however! It’s not mine!

Fic_Kitty, I agree that with some books creasing of the spine is an inevitable result of opening them, so I certainly don’t object to that. As you say, breaking the spine is quite different.

I don’t understand why people need to dogear, though. I find that there’s always some scrap of paper around (old receipts, bus tickets, part of an envelope etc), or at a stretch you could use a hair from your head to mark the place. I also don’t understand how dogearing is actually useful to anyone apart from the first person to dogear the book, because eventually so many pages will be dogeared that they won’t be helpful for marking pages. And if in addition you have people dog-earing for other reasons e.g. because they want to warn other readers about rape scenes, or to mark good or bad scenes it could lead to a lot of confusion, unless people start double or triple-dogearing, at which point the book is going to look a mess. And I think a comparison with graffiti is valid because while a small mark or dogear or two on a library book may seem nothing to worry about, other users may see the book being treated this way and assume that it’s also OK to break the spine, fold pages in half etc.

There is also a vast difference between a book which is rare or out of print, and one which is in current production and easily available

Yes, but Harlequins all go out of print within a month, for example. Some are reissued later, but not all. And it still costs money to replace damaged books which the library might have spent on buying other novels.

I very much approve of electronic copies being made, as in the Gutenburg project online

Yes, I’m sure ebooks will change things a lot, once enough people have got readers for them. I have the feeling that libraries are still working out how to maintain electronic copies, though, because technology can become obsolete so fast, unlike printed books, which are still readable centuries after they were created.

I suppose my biggest issue is when people project their own book practices on others, and look down on those who may not take such care.

I’m not sure that the people who take more care of their books have been looking down on those who don’t. What has been said is that those who like their books to remain in good condition may decide not lend them out to other people and they get upset when library books, which are public property, are damaged.

I think mine are probably somewhere in between… I don’t usually dog ear them, and I like them to look all shiny and new, but there’s a time and a place (books I’ve bought used, say) where some wear and tear is okay. I don’t mark books up unless they’re for class, and then I feel a little guilty if I actually write my thoughts as opposed to highlighting.

One thing I hate hate HATE is people who write in library books. Drives me absolutely freaking insane.

Okay, so maybe I’m a little more hardcore about book condition than I thought.

According to the local public station’s study your family history show, post-it notes are not a good idea for marking documents you mean to keep for decades.  The glue remnant is acidic or something and eventually marks or eats through the page or something. 

I wasn’t really paying attention, I only remember thinking that most of my books and documents weren’t going to make it then.  Oh well.

I used to be unable to write in a book at all, ever, until I would take an expensive medical textbook to work with me (say at the ER) only to have it vanish 10 minutes later.  So I started writing in Big Black Sharpie ink—STOLEN FROM McCOLLUM on the page edges.  You know, holding the book closed tightly and writing opposite the spine.  Many, many young medical residents who could lie to me straight-faced would blush when I traced my name on the book pages.  My books still got “borrowed” but they were always returned.  I enjoy re-reading more than the first read for my fiction books, so they’re all trashed.

I write in my books, break the spines, leave them where they can be chewed by dogs or left underneath the couch until I find them months later, dusty and often torqued.  I can’t stand the thought of selling ANY of my books, but despite my bibliophilia I have no problem defacing them.  Except for one thing: I can’t stand to dog ear the pages.  Can’t. Stand. It.  I’ll leave a pen in the book to mark a page (even though it wrecks the spine) before I’ll dog ear a page.  I never stopped to think about how weird that is until I just spelled it out.  Huh.

verfication word:  group34—is that anything like Area 51?

I am a crazy woman when it comes to the safety and care of my books. Like, librarian crazy. I lend out books to friends and if I catch them bending the cover back, I take the book away and they are not allowed to borrow paperbacks from me again. I once had a friend return a paperback in horrible condition and I swear I yelled at her, “What did the book ever do to you?!”

The only books in my collection that have wear and tear are those that I’ve read a hundred million times. And when I got to college, it took me pretty much a whole quarter to bring myself to write in my textbooks.

For a fascinating history of bookbinding, check out this thread over at Making Light:

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/008719.html#174166

There are five parts to the history—posts #60, 69, 70, 72, and 74—with some interesting discussion following after.

One point Abi makes is that due to economics, contemporary hardcover books are just as ephemeral as paperbacks. Library books should be treated with the consideration due the next reader, but our personal collections won’t lose much if we abuse them a bit.

the only books of mine that show “falling apart at the bindings” wear and tear are the childrens books i’ve had since i was like, six (me, packrat?). my hardbacks, i have no qualms about ripping a page wider where a stray drop of glue got caught halfway down the seam, in fact it’s a pet peeve of mine when each page doesn’t open all the way down to the seam. my paperbacks, i’m absolutely anal about. no dogears, no cracking them open to the spine (though a few lines here or there are inevitable), and no leaving them lying down flat, pages down, when they’re open. and i don’t write in books, ever; that’s what notepads (or laptops, these days) are for. i was thrilled when i found another lady at one of my old jobs who read romance novels at work, and we spent a happy few months exchanging books. then one day i walked by her desk and saw her reading one of my books with the cover turned all the way back and a ho-ho in the other hand. i nearly blew my stack right there in the aisle. i forced myself to calmly ask that she not bend the covers back or get chocolate on my book and walked away, but from then on whenever she came by my desk to raid my stash (i kept five or six books in my drawer at a time, mostly stuff i’d read and thought she’d like) or asked if i’d read anything good lately, she’d find the drawer locked, and i’d laughingly complain that i had too much work to find time to read anymore. she finally got the hint, and i left that job a few months later.
of course, now that i do most of my reading on my palm tx, i don’t have the issues of paper book abuse and whether and with what to bookmark; mobipocket automatically opens whatever book i’m reading to the page i left off at.

I’m in the “no *thwap* dog-earing *thwap* the books!” camp. Dog-earing one of my books is instant life ban from borrowing from my collection. And as for carefully picking up and using one of my books as a mugmat in order to protect your pile of sweet wrappers and torn bus tickets on your already thoroughly coffee-stained desk instead of leaning an extra six inches and picking up an AOL CD (glares at writing partner)...

But while I try not to crack spines, I also recognise that wear and tear happens. I’ll avoid putting a book face down if possible, but I’ll put it face down if I have to. Don’t usually have to though, because I buy a lot of books from the second-hand bookshop just down the road, and they always put a bookmark with their address inside one of the books. There is no shortage of bookmarks in this house.

And I’m so glad to see I’m not the only one who’ll use a sheet of toilet paper as an emergency bookmark. :-)

length76—hmm…

I never ever dog ear. If I need to remember a scene or quote I write the page number down, sometimes in the book or on the paper I use as bookmark, in pencil. I do underline and jot down comments in nonfiction books, always in pencil. I also sometimes comment in fiction books, but only those from the library, never my own. Evil I know, but library books are made for marginalia conversation and will never stay in pristine condition for long anyway, I reason… I also eat while reading, spill things in my books, leave them open and face down if I can’t find a bookmark, carry them around in my bag, and so on. I treat library books and my own books pretty much the same, but I try to be a bit more careful with books borrowed from friends. My books all look ok though, they don’t show any major signs of wear.

If I’m reading a paperback I don’t really worry too much. If the book is hardcover or borrowed (including Books(not)Free) I am much more careful with them.
I don’t dog ear, and I don’t even write in my textbooks. I do tote my books around with me everywhere like Linus and his blanket, so they do get worn.
I am really strange about my assortment of bookmarks. I like to use the Bible quoting one that came in one of my used books to mark pages in my Evolutionary Biology book. It just seems fitting.

I’m horrible to books. When I’m reading, I read constantly, so they get all kinds of water marks, stains, bends, etc. Heck, if it was possible, I’d probably read in the shower. Personally though, I hate giving books away or selling them. I do have a couple of books with the pages falling out. I only buy hard cover of my absolute favorites, and then I don’t read them, their just there to look pretty. I have this horrible thing that I do, because I’m oblivious to everything else when I’m reading, I end up putting the page under my fingernail and bending it. I’ve been trying to break myself of the habit, but most of my paperbacks have little tears in the side of the page.I’m really really nice to library books - usually they are hard back and a bit more durable anyway. I don’t dog ear, just because I remember where I am in a book pretty well. Never been able to keep track of a bookmark for very long.

I can’t write in books. I also hate using post it notes - it really bothers me when I see books with millions of post it notes sticking out. If I want to take notes I actually take them on a separate sheet of paper.  I always thought that whole ‘you get better grades by note taking in books’ was a little overblown, I always get excellent grades in English. And I hated it when I HAD to take notes in books. I hated it when teachers did this. Like, just let me do my thing and grade me on it. Who cares how? I did start highlighting non-fiction in college, but I can’t write in pen or pencil in books because it distracts me to much and is hard to read.

“Post-it paper stickys can be removed freely without damaging the page.”

Yes, and they make it difficult to flip through a book after it’s marked. They get creased and sometimes just fall out with blithe abandon, too.

Post-it flags you can at least read through the tape part, and they’re flexible so you can riffle the pages. You don’t ever need to take them out. Thank god, because I have a bunch of (nonfiction) books marked up that way for future reference when I’m writing.

I make notes on paper, though. I never write in books because the notes I make are always specific to a project, so next time the note wouldn’t make sense, and it would interfere with thinking about the next project.

A book sap (the leather thingie with lead on both ends) is great for holding books open at the dinner table without cracking the spines.

It’s also a good thing to use on people who dogear pages.

If a book doesn’t look used, then it hasn’t been loved, in my opinion. I used to try to use bookmarks because dog-earing pages bugs my spouse, but then I would lose a million bookmarks, slips of paper, etc. AND I would lose my place.

I don’t mind a folded over corner, or several of them, in a book. To keep a spine crease-free seems close to perfectionism and OCD gone amuck. Who cares about a crease in a book that cost $6.99?

Go HaikuKatie! I read in the shower too, and up until now I rather thought it was me all by my lonesome who had perfected the technique. ^_^

And although my books don’t have bite marks, you can definitely tell the well-loved ones. Dog-ears, stains and spills from eating, water damage… although very rarely is there writing. My number one pet peeve with buying used textbooks is trying to read through other peoples’ highlighting/underlining/circling/commentary, especially when I don’t agree with the Very Important Point That HAD To Be Highlighted. Gah, that’s the worst- when people highlight useless information.

In college I always bought new or used books that were like new so that I could leave my own mark on them.  I really felt like I had to highlight/cross-out/mark through to make a good grade. 
As far as my books go, I am gentle but not uptight nor abusive.  I rarely write in a book, but I do like to bend them back, and I either dog ear or stick a bookmark to hold my place.
I can say that more than one has fallen in the bathtub though.

Reformed dog-earer and general book abuser who still misses the “krrack” of a snapped spine when opening a new book. Drags books everywhere, but luckily reads quickly enough that they don’t usually sustain undue environmental damage.

Could never, ever write or mark a library book, but will occasionally mark my own non-fic for research purposes in pencil only (and have bought copies expressly to do this). Never finds this as useful as notes on bits of paper, because thoughts never materialise in a nice and linear fashion anyhow.

Secretly enjoys the nosy feeling of reading other people’s comments, but curls lip with derision if this is done in ink. Only highlights or uses pen in textbooks that “feel” like exercise books (wide margins, questions to answer with gaps to do this, etc.). Doing this feels very daring and reckless.

But… the greatest frisson from book abuse is occasionally coming across a Very Old Book, from back in the day when sub-sections (don’t know the proper terminology) were printed on big sheets and then folded and cut before being bound. Sometimes the pages weren’t cut properly and then a very sharp knife is needed to slit between folded-over pages. Very ones from librairies printed in French on thick yellow paper are a good bet for this. It still happens, but rarely, and trimming the pages of modern paperbacks where an extra-big piece of corner has somehow been folded back inside the book and therefore hasn’t been chopped off is a pale substitute.

This is a tad on the late side.  I’ve been living in a hole filled with small children for the past week.  It will be long because I’m tired and I ramble when I’m tired.

I’m somewhere between carnal and courtly.  I treat library books very well though they sometimes get carried around for a while.  In the case of my own books, I treat the new ones really well and the older (or used) ones less so.

I tend to read books in long swallows instead of short sips (though I carry the book around everywhere incase I get the smallest chance to read) so I don’t often need much in the way of a bookmark.  I put the book face down on a clean surface or the edge of the couch if I’m doing something quickly or can’t take the book with me.  If I’m taking the book with me or putting it down for an extended period of time then it gets a bookmark, spare piece of paper etc.  If there’s nothing within reach or I’m in a rush I dogear (small, usually the bottom corner).  I try not to dogear hardcovers especially if they’re my fiances, to him they are sacrosanct.  If it’s new or belongs to someone else then I just remember the page number.

I don’t ever crack spines and on a new book will even read the first quarter of the book sideways so the cover doesn’t bend and stand strait in the air when I put it down (it always ends up a little bent, which I hate).  I don’t ever, ever, ever write in a book.  It’s not that I think it’s bad.  It makes sense if you want to go back or something but I just don’t do it.  I read fast, don’t carry around a pencil in my back pocket, and have a near photographic memory so I don’t worry about it.  I can’t remember which page it was on but I can usually remember what the page looked like (paragraph breaks etc) and how far down the page it was.  I would like to get in the habit of writing things down, in a notebook even, but haven’t quite done it yet.

In non-fiction I don’t write or highlight.  I am not a fan of other people doing it because it jars me out of my reading trance.  I’m a good judge of readers voices, can recognize an author or bloggers voice after a few times reading them, can often tell who is writing what in a story written by two or more people and can even sometimes tell whether it’s a male or female writing.  If someone writes something in a book I have trouble assimilating it into the authors voice.  I get drawn out of that world and into the world of the person who doodled in the margin.  Disconcerting.

I also have to admit to burning a few books.  They were stripped books someone had given me.  We have a wood stove.  I burned the horrible ones I would never read and the ones I liked enough to buy.  Otherwise I almost never part with my books. 

I like my books pretty so most of them get pretty decent care.  Not like my CD’s, every single one is precious and gets babied within in inch of it’s life.  I will yell at anyone who doesn’t treat a book or CD with respect.  Normal wear and tear is an acceptable exception.

I hate dog-earing, but I’ve gotten in the habit of writing in books if I come across a word I don’t know. I put the word, citation (page, line), and definition in the inside front cover/on the endpaper.

(Un)fortunately, this doesn’t occur very often.

I treat my hardbacks very well.  My paperbacks are another story.  I dog ear, and leave them face down but open all the time.  How else is a person supposed to remember what page they were on?  I can hardly remember my wallet half the time, much less a bookmark.  One habit I have been trying to break myself of is leaving them open, face down on the front passenger seat of my car when it’s warm out.  That damn glue just melts away.

But I recently borrowed four out-of-print books from a friend and found something. . .just a bit odd.  Teeth marks irregularly spaced through the book, in the top corners.  When I questioned her, she told me she has a habit of cooking and reading at the same time and ends up with the book in her mouth to hold her page.  I thought that was pretty individual.

I’m a moderate book abuser.  I don’t dog-ear (I’m rarely that far from a scrap of paper to use as a bookmark), and I don’t mark the text sections of the book (too distracting).

However, I read while eating, and I haul books around in my backpack where they get scuffed up. When I finish reading a book I own, I write the date inside the back cover—that’s been useful when I’ve wondered just how long it’s been since I’ve reread X or how many times I’ve read Y.

I work for a publisher.  The first time I saw a huge load of books being trashed, I winced.  Since then, I’ve become more laid-back about it.  (It helps when the book is particularly boring….)

Yet another offspring of a librarian.

While I am careful with my books, I’m (surprisingly) not too obssessive about it. (Mostly, because I carry at least one book with me everywhere I go, and very few paperbacks come through that experience completely unscathed, so I’ve learned to live with it.)

You would think this would mean I could lend books to friends or family, right? Wrong. I never lend books—NEVER EVER. Because what if they don’t come back? (which has happened) What if I can’t replace them? (which has also happened) Plus, the empty space in the shelf nags at my subconscious like a child sobbing, “Mommy, come get me!!! mommy, where are you?” The best I can do is to allow people to read my books in my house.

What drives me up a wall is people damaging books that don’t belong to them—be those library books, school books, a friend’s books. Ack!!! But then, I was told that when using something that didn’t belong to me I was to be much more careful with it than if it were in fact mine.

I try to keep my books mint, but eventaully a dab of ice-cream or cheesy dorito pawprint will find its way to those pristine pages, not so anal on the paperbacks, they spend most of there short life in my back pocket absorbing ass sweat..thats nasty.