Booking through Thursday

Here is this week's BTT. For more answers click here.

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?

I hate a broken spine (yow! wouldn't it hurt?) on any book. I am careful not to do it.

The rest depends on the book and the binding. I'm fairly careful with hardback books. I don't dog-ear them or write in them. I don't even like to use the cover flap as a bookmark. Nicely bound paperbacks often get treated the same way, but generally I'll dog-ear a paperback, and sometimes I might even make a small tick or mark in the margins.

I used to be more careful of my paperbacks, but now that I see how poorly some of them hold up over time (for example, yellowed pages that fall right out when you open the book), I have eased up.

I am respectful of other people's books. So much so, it can be difficult to read them. I almost never lend books, because I find that other people just don't treat my books well. I've gotten books back that look like they were dipped in the bath, that have coffee stains on the covers, that have broken spines, and more. Sometimes I don't get the book back at all.

What other people do to their own books is their own business. I don't flinch.