This week’s BTT topic:
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?
Afraid I can’t really come up with one definitive answer here. Some books I do try to keep in pristine condition – certain first editions, and copies of titles that I collect – like Alice in Wonderland or Huckleberry Finn. And some very old books, of course.
However, the very mention of spine-breaking makes me cringe. That’s a no-no. I don’t even like to break the spines of magazines.
If it’s a hard cover book, I try not to be a dog-earer (that’s why I have that huge collection of bookmarks). But paperbacks are fair game: usually not for marking my place (again – huge collection of bookmarks), but for noting passages I want to remember and write down later.
Which brings us to margin writing. And on that count, I’m afraid I have to plead guilty – I’m an enthusiastic note writer. I usually try to keep it short, and write lightly in pencil so I can erase later. But if you start investigating my library, you’ll find that most books are annotated to some degree. Well, it’s my book and I’ll write if I wanna!
October 30, 2008 at 11:32 PM
I will highlight a non-fiction book that I’ve purchased. I haven’t written notes in a book since grad school.
October 31, 2008 at 2:42 AM
Why write in pencil? You KNOW that you’re NEVER going to go back and erase, and even if you did, it wouldn’t erase cleanly. Hey, if it’s YOUR book, write in ink! Be bold, Joy!