Your personal book rules

[KanoasDestiny]

What are your book Do's and Dont's? For example - bending or marking on pages, lending books to others, flipping to the back page while reading, quiting half way through...

I absolutely do not damage any of my books if I can help it, so no bending or marking here. I have lended some of my books to a friend, but I am leary to do so and I don't know if I would be willing to lend my favorites out. I'm sad to admit it, but sometimes when I'm reading a book that is suspenseful or that I'm dying to know the ending, I'll flip through the back of the book to make sure that a character is still being mentioned or I'll 'glance' at the last page.

I can't remember the last book that I didn't finish. It may take me days or weeks, but I always finish it. Nothing is left unfinished here (unless we're talking about housework. Lol).

What about you?

 

[ohmt]

I will admit, I dog ear pages.....I didn't write anything on your bookmarking thread because I knew I'd get heat for it, but that's my bookmarking method if I don't buy hardcover. If I do, I use the outer lining part to bookmark. Otherwise, dog ear it is. I do always bebd them back so no one who later reads through them can ever tell.

I lend out books to whomever wants them, but I have alwaus received them back.

I don't flip to the back and I always finish a book. Other than that, I really don't have any book reading quirks

 

[Marsha Cassada]

When I run across words I don't know, I underline them in pencil, look up the word, then write the definition at the bottom of the page. I figure if I don't know what it means, someone else might not either. When I reread the book, it's nice not to have to wonder about that weird word. (I'm taking about words like "uxorious", or other obscure or archaic words. Sometimes another language that needs to be translated.)

I don't bend pages. Paper doesn't forgive easily.

I rather like getting a used book that someone has made notes in, underlined sentences, or made personal remarks on the pages. Makes it interesting.

One thing I DON'T like in a book is a huge, flowery inscription inside. "To so&so, you make my heart sing with joy when I think of all the wonderful things you do and are to me. Remember me and my regard when you read this book. Your friend always. So&so." Usually done in ink. Yuck. I don't like buying one of those and don't like receiving one as a gift, either. Better to put a seperate note with the book. The recipient can use it as a book mark.

I DO like used books with interesting bookplates.

 

[KanoasDestiny]

Ohmt, no heat from this way. It's interesting to hear what everyone's preferences are. Just like what Marsha said, I would never think to write the definitions on the bottom of a page. I don't think I could personally do it, but I can see how others would like and appreciate it. I do remember having to read The Scarlet Letter in high school and by the time we finished putting all of our notes in the margins and highlighting things, I think I now hold every tiny secret, metaphor, and definition that book has. I haven't read it in 15 years but when I do, it should be a piece of cake!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Sorry. I did not mean to be critical of anyone who turns pages down. I'm a reader who writes on the pages!

 

[KanoasDestiny]

I don't think your comment sounded critical at all.

 

[Kim~Crayonboxminiatures]

I never read the end or flip to the back of the book, I might skim parts if it's a boring part or skim chunks if I'm wanting to finish the book and it's not interesting, but I never skip ahead. I would never bend down corners of my own books, but I confess I do sometimes fold down the corners of library books, especially if the page contains a quote I want to remember to write down later, but no paper to mark the spot or write down the quote is handy. I always have book mark or at least a peice of paper to keep my spot in the book, but not extras.

I do lend out books to my friends, but there are probably a few favorites I wouldn't lend to just anyone. I also have to put my books on the shelves in order in a series, and then by height (hate it when I end up with books in a series that are different heights!). I also tend to group them by author, and then similar genres or topics. I have a shelf for children's books for my neices or kids that visit, a shelf for vet/reference/training books on horses upstairs and downstairs, along with goat reference books. Then I have two boxes of books in the attic that were my favorites when I was growing up. And I always have a stack of "to read" books, or more than one stack. I think I got that particular habit from my mom, they don't go onto the shelf until they've been read.

 

[KanoasDestiny]

Kim, my bookshelf is also done by series/size/genre. I have a shelf dedicated to Iris Johansen, three shelves for my Young Adult books, two shelves for my adult books, and a shelf for my classics/fantasy books. Then off to the side I have a small bookshelf where I have my kids books (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Spiderwick Chronicles). I don't know why they're catagorized this way. It just seems to work for me.

If a book in a series is a different size from the others, it drives me insane! It seems like no matter how hard I try to match them, people send me the wrong size.

 

[Kendra]

When I was a little girl, my great-grandma told me that you can tell a real book lover by how worn their favorite books are. I know lots of people like their books in pristine condition - in college I had a friend who was telling me how he just "peeked" between the pages to read his Will James books so it wouldn't crease the spine. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that I'm a story lover than a book lover - my books are valued for the story or information they contain, not for shiny covers and wrinkle free pages.

 

[susanne]

Kendra, your great grandma would probably think I don't really love my books, but many of my favorites that I've read many times are still in great condition. Of course, I also have many that I've purchased from used bookstores that are in age-appropriate condition, but they still look like I first found them.

With hard cover books at least, I make certain my hands are clean before reading -- I've even gone so far as to take a soft kneaded eraser to clean the edges of the pages. When I was four, I memorized our encyclopedia's dog section, and while doing it I creased the corner of one page and worried it back and forth. To my horror, the corner fell off. To this day, I still feel bad about it.

I admit it -- I'm a book and paper geek. I used to go into my favorite art supply store and straighten out their fine paper shelves and drawers so that the gorgeous papers did not get bent.

My college textbooks were emblazoned with highlighter pen on key passages, but my Riverside Shakespeare is a treasured posession -- I don't remember if post-it notes even existed then, but I had tons of little slips of paper with class notes tucked between the pages.

I could never sneak a peek at the ending of a book any more than I would have looked for hidden Christmas presents as a child -- I hate ruined surprises. As with everything, I take this to a ridiculous extent and cover the next page with my hand as I approach the ending, so as not to spoil it. I will, however, jump ahead a bit if the beginning of a book doesn't grab me, read until I'm hooked, then go back to the beginning.

I love reading reviews AFTER I've finished a book to see if I agree with the critic, but I never read them before, as too often someone tells too much.

 

[chandab]

I try not to damage my books, so no bending pages. I rarely lend books; I never lend to smokers, as I hate the smell of smoke and it seems to linger in paper. The books are arranged by subject and size on my book shelves.

 

[SugaryCharm]

As a general rule, I try not to bend pages or damage spines as I'm reading, but that can be tough with fat paperbacks. I have a hardcover boxed series that I reread every few years but look pristine because I take the jackets off while they're out of the box and am generally very careful when I read them. However, I do have another paperback series of books that I love that have lots of dog-eared pages because I code powerful sentences from them as passwords.

Forgot the question about lending--no one I know "in person" is interested in my favorite genre so it's a nonissue for me. I lend Kindle books to my mom sometimes and that is about it!