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Oct
30
BTT: Conditioning
2008 at 8am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Today’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?
This is a very loaded question. Relationships have been destroyed over questions like this. My own relationship is a bit more complicated because of it…but I’ll get to that in a minute. (I’ve been planning to blog about this anyway, so I’ll take this opportunity to go just a little off topic.)
I am a spine breaker from way back. I want to be comfortable when I’m reading, and I’m going to hold and bend and fold the book however I need to to make that happen. When I leave for work in the morning, I toss my current book into my purse, where it gets jostled around all day, then I read during lunch (occasionally leaving crumbs or spills on the pages), toss it back into my purse, jostle it around some more while I run errands, and then drop it on the coffee table to be picked up again after dinner.
I don’t deliberately harm my books (just the thought makes me shudder), but they do look like they’ve been read when I’m done with them. I underline passages and write in margins and make notes on the blank pages at the very back. I’ve been known to draw diagrams of family trees or character relationships if the story is heavily populated, and this is the way I think God intended it.
My husband….well, that’s another story.
He thinks of his books as little trophies—evidence of his well-readness and reminders of his favorite pastime—and he absolutely, positively expects them to be in pristine condition after he has read them. No broken spines, no dog-eared pages (though I don’t do that anyway. I’m a bookmarker all the way.), and DEFINITELY NO WRITING.
Which makes things interesting if I want to read a book that he already has.
When I borrow one of hubby’s books, I have to hold my hands just so to keep from breaking the spine. I have to place it delicately into my purse in the morning and eat my lunch very carefully. I have to resist the urge to underline or write notes in the margin, a feat I achieve by keeping a notepad at my elbow while I read, and if I damage the book, you betcha I’m buying him a new one (this has only happened once). But that has its own set of complications because when the new book arrives, he can’t put the pristine one on the shelf and just let it be. No, he’ll know that he hasn’t actually read that copy, and he’ll feel compelled to read the book again.
Yes, I know my husband is weird. But he has many other wonderful qualities.
Where it gets really funny is when a new book comes out that we both want to read. If we’re going to share a copy, it will make him crazy to know that I read it first. So, we can either buy one copy that he’ll read and then pass on to me, or we buy two copies. If I recommend a book I’ve read to him and he wants to read it, he won’t read my copy (what with the notes and underlining and broken spine) but will instead buy his own to keep in perfect condition.
So what we end up with is a whole bunch of duplicates, his clean copies snuggled up against my well-loved ones. I suppose he would say the condition of his books is evidence that they are well-loved also, just in a different way, and I’d have to agree. The man does love his books.
And I love him, so I suppose I’ll keep him, weird book habits and all.
Now, off to the new Toni Morrison, which I will undoubted write all over. And I’ll love every minute of it.
Whose side are you on? Tell me all about it, and click on the icon above to read more Booking Through Thursday responses or leave your own.
No related posts.
Too funny. I make it a habit to not take sides in other people’s marital debates.
My husband used to buy only hardbacks. He thought paperbacks were inferior. Over the years, I’ve tried to convince him that the same words are inside the paperback — once in a while he’ll go the economic route, but not often.
I’m on the pristine side. Most of the books I read could be taken back to the bookstore and returned as “unread” (not that I’d ever do such a thing!)
I’ve always wished that I could be the kind of person to scribble notes all over my books – I absolutely love reading books that someone else has annotated! Unfortunately, I never seem to have anything to say, which is sad, really.
I tend to fall smack in the middle. I tend to crease the spine and because a book travels with me during my work week, it gets schlepped all over the country with me. So the cover can easily get creased or something like that (although I don’t turn down pages to mark). But aside from that kind of wear and tear, I don’t write or mark in my books. Rather, I keep a tiny pad of post-it’s with me and mark the page with something interesting. Later I will copy that into my review notebook, if need be.
I love hearing about other people’s books. You and your husband sound very well matched, actually!
I’m more like your hubby.
I’m surprised… I started reading from #57 and going up and you (at #46) are the first one who had habits similiar to mine. It’s nice to know I’m not a total freak… there’s someone else out there who has the same way of expressing “love” for their books.
Although, I can understand how your husband thinks his treatment is an expression of love as well.
Wow, this is a great tale! I think the way you guys have worked it out is really sweet as well.
My answer contains both your and your husbands traits.
It’s say I favor your husband’s habits as well, though I’m not really disdainful of book-spine-breakers! I just have a compulsion to keep the books pristine myself.
Okay, the great book debate at your house is pretty funny. I am definitely more like you, although I don’t write in books often (it has happened in the past, like with the beginning of “The Killer Angels”). Although my husband isn’t a huge reader, he is much more like your husband in his treatment of the books he does read (always either nonfiction, Tolkein, or C.S. Lewis). He will NOT leave a book open face down or dog-ear pages…which drives me a little crazy if I fall asleep reading, because sometimes he’ll just shut my book and put it down, without marking the page in any way if nothing is handy.
I gotta say we wouldn’t be sharing books if we knew each other in real life. I’m not as much of a stickler as your husband though.
Oops forgot to leave my url:
http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com
Callista: If I borrowed your books, I’d be nice to them and take my notes on an extra sheet of paper…but I suppose you wouldn’t want to borrow my annotated copies.
Ok, finally! Someone who is of the same mind as I am! I love my books, but I write in the margins, in the backs, next to loved passages, and I dog-ear pages for books I am having a tough time following if I plan to review it (though that is usually in desperation when I have no more sticky notes). I love my bookmarks, particularly ones I recently received from an Australian blogger.
I have to be comfortable when reading, which occurs in odd places, like walking down the street, across the street, standing on subway cars, standing or sitting on buses, lying on the couch, etc.
Funny…I just added to my post about this very thing! The different ways we love our books.
I’m a pristine kind of person…but not quite to the level of your husband!
I figure if it’s your book, you should be able to do what you want with it. However, I’m more like your husband. My books look brand new. Once in awhile there is a serious mishap with say.. a tall Pumpkin Spice Soy Latte but that is very rare.
I use Post-it notes to make notes as I read. I stick them all over but in the end, the book comes away unscathed. I really try to protect the cover. A crease in the cover really disturbes me.
haha!! It is so funny that you have to buy two copies of some books
I love that! I would not have pegged you for a spine breaker, or a underliner at all…but really I feel a common bond with you now that I know that.
I love this BTT!! It seems to have generated quite a stir
I freak out if my books are slightly bent or the corners of pages are folded! Books should be handled with care and gentleness, just like cradling a baby in the crook.
For my favorite authors and favorite books, I keep duplicates—one would easily show signs of being read and the other a pure trophy!
Nicole and I are the same way! Nicole being a teacher has very different ways of processing information than I do.
I’m just like Bob in that sense, and I think it has something to do with why he and I ended up with Business degrees, and work in finance/business world.
Kevin! So glad you finally came out of stalkerdom and joined the conversation
I think you’re probably right.
That’s very interesting. I don’t keep my books pristine like “trophies” but I don’t bash them about, either. I take care of them just because I want them to last longer and not fall apart (which the mass market paperbacks always do) when I re-read them. I don’t like reading books that have been marked in, because the underlining makes me think of why another person chose to mark that part of the text, and distracts me from my own reaction to it. I used to underline my favorite parts of books, and then discovered when I read them years later, those markings I’d done myself annoyed me, because my perceptions of the book had changed! I went back and erased all the pencil-marked ones, and am replacing all the ink-marked ones, now. Sorry for so long a comment. I should have said all this in my own post, but didn’t think of it when I was first writing!
Wow, your husband is an extreme – re-reading the *new* copy of a book if you’ve marked up the original/*old* copy he has read!
That makes my “don’t write and don’t dog-ear” guidelines look very loose.
Glad to know that your books and your husband’s books can sit comfortably on the shelves together
Well, I wouldn’t quite call him an extreme…but he’s very passionate that his position is the right one and I must be crazy for writing in my books.
What a great post! My husband and I rarely read the same books, although I think we’re pretty much on the same page as far as the way we handle them.
I don’t really let people borrow my books for fear they would hurt them! I definitely get where your husband is coming from! But then again most of my friends don’t read like i do so they don’t usually ask to borrow a book!
Like Alea, I tend to not let others borrow my books because I want them to stay in good condition. I’ll let my husband borrow my books, but I know they won’t return in the same condition. He tries to keep them nice for me, though.
Occasionally, I will dog-ear some pages, but not often. My main concern, though, is the cover. I also cringe when I accidentally bend pages versus dog-earring them.