Thursday, October 30, 2008

Booking Through Thursday - Conditioning


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

OK. This is an easy one. NO, I'm not a spine breaker. Or a dog-earer (although I do not believe dog-earere is really a word). I AM that weird person that gets freaky when her books are touched. My kids and my husband all think I'm slightly manic when it comes to my books. Actually, I don't really think it's a mania. But I do feel I'm a little OCD about certain things. Books, just happen to be one of the things that me a little crazy. I physically cringe to see someone dog-earing a book. And watching a person crack a spine?? Well, usually it takes a paper bag for me to blow into to keep me from hypervenilating!

Weird, I know. But I have an almost reverencial view of books. I KNEW I should have been a librarian......

Happy Thursday!!


11 comments:

Debi said...

You freak out when people touch your books, huh? That just cracked me up! Good thing that's not one of my obsessions...Annie is forever borrowing my books and they never come back in quite the same condition.

Anonymous said...

I concur! Books should be handled with care and gentleness, just like cradling a baby in the crook.

Anonymous said...

I don't really like it when other people touch my books, either! I only trust my mom because she's even more careful about it than I am.

Ana S. said...

I'm all for treating books with reverence! I'm really careful with mine, but my boyfriend puts me to shame. He's borderline obsessive, I swear :P

SmilingSally said...

That's your new career all right--a librarian.

Ladytink_534 said...

I have a thing about my books being "harmed" lol. I saw someone take a paperback and completely fold back the pages like you would a notebook not too long ago and it made me sick to my stomach. I'm guilty of dog-earering sometimes but it's very rarely and only in paperbacks since you can unfold them and it won't leave creases after being on the shelf between other books.

Stephanie said...

Debi - Yeah...I do kind of freak out about my books. I loaned a Trade Paperback to a friend one time and it came back in pieces!! Chunks of pages were coming out. Since then, I've been borderline obsessive about it. I did loan my son my Twilight....he's read it now and I still haven't. The cover got creased some, but I made myself be cool about it. Since he IS reading!

Matt - I'm with you. Care and gentleness!

Meghan - I'd probably trust my mom, but she and I have completely different tastes in books!

Nymeth - I'm trying to be better now that Chad is starting to borrow some of my books. But yeah...borderline obsessive is generally me!

SmilingSal - I'd LOVE to be a librarian!!

Tink - I used to dogear my paperbacks all the time. Not so much anymore though. Only if I want to mark a certain page for later use!!

chrisa511 said...

Oh I'm the same way Stephanie! Only I touch my books (the unspoken rule around the house) and it literally makes me cringe when people break the spine of their books! I cringed just typing that, lol.

Anonymous said...

haha! that is totally understandable. theres nothing so beautiful as an OLLLLD book that still looks pristine because the person has taken good care of it.

personally i'm a bit of a mutilator of books which i got from my mom and seeing her shelves with books that all looked "well read".

DesLily said...

Absolutely not! You could NOT be a librarian!.. you'd never let anyone check a book out of your sight! LOL..

I don't dogear (that's what bookmarks are for!) I try to be careful with the spine, but on occasion I can say a book has been too fat and it seems unavoidable.. but over all I treasure my books!

Bookfool said...

Yep, I agree. But, the kiddo is pretty hard on books and I try to keep my trap shut. I'm just so happy he's a reader!