Exceedingly Mundane

I haven’t been able to come up with 13 of anything lately, so I haven’t been playing along with the Thursday Thirteen meme. Instead, I’ve really been enjoying this book-related meme. Click here to go play along 🙂

Booking Through Thursday – TLC

What kind of care do you take of your books? Let’s review, shall we?

1. Are you careful with the spines? Or do you crack your books open to make them lay flat? I’m very careful with my books, whether they are mine, borrowed from a friend or family member, or from the library. It’s just something I was raised with, you take care of things and they will last. I’m as careful as I can be with the spines, but sometimes, on small paperbacks, they will crack a little and be a little worn out from being opened. I don’t crack them open intentionally to flatten them out. Never.
2. Do you use bookmarks? Or do you dog-ear the corners? If you do use bookmarks, do you use those fashionable metal ones? Or paper? I am a bookmark user! I never dog-ear the pages, and only rarely will I use a scrap of paper to mark my place. I have several bookmarks, and a new book “thong” from a dear friend, and I love to use those to mark my place.
3. Do you write in your books? Ever? If you do, do you make small marks, or write in as much blank space as you can find? Pen or pencil? Highlighter? Your name on the front page? OK, sounding like a broken record here already, but no, I don’t write in my books, or highlight them, or write in the margins. I didn’t even do this with books or workbooks in school, any more than I had to. I don’t like to mar or degrade my books in any way. The only exception to that is that sometimes I do write my name in the front, or a small inscription if the book is a gift to Tim (I’ll write the date, like Valentines or our anniversary and the year). I’ve had to start putting my name in some of them, because I’ve had some misunderstandings about loaning my books and not getting them back 🙁
4. Do you toss your books on the floor? Into bookbags? Or do you treat them tenderly, with respect? Well, I tend to treat them pretty well. I must admit that I will stack them up on the floor, on the nightstand, in the bookcase, or shove them into a bag or my purse to take with me.
5. Do you ever lay your book face-down, to save your place? Rarely, I mostly always use bookmarks.
6. Um–water? Do you bathe with your books? Hold them with wet hands? Read out in the rain? Anything of that sort? Rarely, if ever. I haven’t done that in a long time. And now a days, I think if I were to read in the tub, I would probably take a magazine and not a book.
7. Are your books lined up on a bookshelf? Or crammed in any which way? Stacked on the floor? They’re mostly in bookcases, because I’ve been working on that since Christmas. But I do have some piled up in a pile on the floor of my bedroom. I’m a piler. Piles everywhere. 😀
8. Do you make a distinction–as regards book care–between hardcovers and paperbacks? Not really, I treat all my books really well.
9. And, to recap? Naturally, you love all of your books, but how, exactly? Are your books loved in the battered way of a well-loved teddy bear, or like a cherished photo album or item of clothing that’s used, appreciated, but carefully cared for? Cherished and cared for, especially the hardbacks.
10. Any additional comments? Nope, I feel like a broken record, plus I did this book meme below yesterday, so this is pretty redundant!!!