You know how I love Booking Through Thursdays. This week's question is: "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 am definitely a spine-breaker, but not a dog-earer (I live and die by book marks). However, I don't keep my books in pristine condition--I want them to feel loved and used like they were meant to be and to serve as a testimony of the journey that the author, the characters, and I made together while I was reading.
I nearly always read with a pen in hand; I like to underline favorite passages and write notes that remind me of what I was thinking/feeling when I read that passage. I write the date that I read the book inside the front cover and then, if I re-read, I'll use a different color pen so I can use my books as a diary of sorts. Also, this writing in the margains, etc., helps when I'm doing my reviews to remember how the book impressed me throughout--not just how I was feeling at the end. [Obviously, this doesn't work for library books, so I've got to use my journal for those.]
How do you treat your books? Post your thoughts in the comments (or post your own response on your blog and link it up at the BTT meme).
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16 comments:
thanks for your nice comment :-) it's also nice to know i'm not the only heretic out there!
Thanks for visiting my blog, what an excellent idea about covering the books!
Yeah, spine breaking is great isn't it!?! haha.
I agree with you, a well loved book is one that looks well loved :)
Oh, and to answer your question: yes it is the way he completely folds back the top cover onto the back cover, ahhh!! just thinking about it makes me want to tell him not to. I am a spine breaker, but not nearly so hardcore.
Happy BTT!!
I don't sit and read at the computer. I mark passages with little Post-It flags, and when I've finished reading and am sitting at the computer to type up the review, I open my quotes folder and add new quotes along with my thoughts and feelings about each one. I used to have a commonplace book for my reading. I'd sit with it as I read and would immediately stop to write quotes and reactions in it. I guess you'd say that my commonplace book has simply gone high tech!
Sometimes it's difficult not to crack the spine of a really thick trade paperback. I'll try to use a bookweight. But I think books should be handled with care and gentleness, just like cradling a baby in the crook.
I used to be a dog earrer... but then my BFF chastised me after i did it to one of her books... so now i am a book mark girl. My spines are a mess. My mom says i read books like my dad, folding one half of the book back and holding it in one hand.
I am an underliner too... I once underlined all the love parts between Marius and Cosette in Les Miserables. Then awhile after that i lent it to a boy that i had a crush on. I often wonder if\when he reads those lines, if he thinks i was sending him a subtle hint??????
@Marie - Heretics are welcomed on this blog.
@Dot - Actually, I'm thinking about doing that too... cheap and they can be customized for the person. So cool. I didn't realize I was that clever.
@Bethany - Hardcore spine-breakers are dangerous. You definitely need to keep an eye on that one.
@Sabrina - That's actually a clever ruse to play on a guy. Good show.
I did that sort of thing with college textbooks, but I'm different now.
Do you ever wind up with a book you've marked in so much there's no room to leave any more notes and you have to buy a new copy? Just curious. I don't write in books myself.
But I knew a man who underlined (color-coded) in his bible and when one got full of notes, he'd get a new one. He liked to look back in the old ones and see how he'd marked different passages at various stages in his life.
@Jeanne, I've never run out of space... yet. I do the same thing with my Bible, and I buy a new one when mine starts to fall apart from over-use, but I keep the old ones; when I study a passage, I'll go back and see if I have an notes I wrote in old copies of my Bible.
I am an underliner too. Thanks for stopping by my blog.
Three cheers for bookmarks!
It must be great to go back to all the notes you make! I'll sometimes mark in pencil a fav quote to copy down later but that's about it.
Same answer here but I am the opposite of you in that I'm a dog-earer and not a spine-breaker. :D
I often think about writing in my books, especially those for review, but I just can't bring myself to do it! I tend to keep a piece of paper inside to keep notes on.
I like the idea of marking when you read the book on the fly leaf, although there are a few old favorites that would have many, many dates. But I agree, books should feel loved especially for all the joy they give us:)
I break spines, too, but I make notes only very rarely.
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