D'artagnan--
My paper clips rarely remain in place for more than 24 hours. The exceptions are in books I own and the paper clips are intended as a semi-permanent marker.
By the time the books go back to the library, the mark of the paper clip has vanished.
No prob, Noddy. I guess I was overestimating the effect of paper clips on the printed page, not that it's any of my business...
I just found that those Dewey book marks I mentioned earlier are being issued one per month and are only handed out the first week of the month. I think this is a brilliant way of getting anal types (such as myself) into the library on a regular basis. As if we weren't doing that already! Now I have to figure out how to get the first three bookmarks--the one I picked up last week was for the 400s...
Bookmarks? Really?
I almost never use them -- If I can't remember where I was in the book, I start where I do remember. (This is bad when a book has a lot of flashbacks, but I cope.)
I did just mark a hiking book for a friend with a paperclip. Oops! And those post-it notes would be handy, wouldn't they?
D'artagnan--
You foul fiend! You wretched wretch! You ardent and enthusiastic book preserver!
I will assume that your slur against my character (paper indenter, indeed!)
was spoken in haste because of your zeal for treasuring the wisdom of the ages!
Mutilating books isn't quite the same as burning books, but there are degrees of perfidity.
Hold your dominion.
Noddy, Think of all the abuses books undergo:
Cracking the book
Hitting the books
Cooking the books
Throwing the book (at someone)
Book marking
And who among us is innocent of pagination?
Not to mention that slightly criminal underclass called "bookies."
And all of those bookkeepers with all of their "kept books".
Back to bookmarks for a minute, why not have an appropriate bookmark for each book, one which incorporates your view of the book? one which signals clearly how you feel about that particular book? Which bookmark goes with which book?
Kleenex, or pieces of toilet paper. I usually have a couple of books going at once, and always have boxes of tissues nearby (when I sneeze, I sneeze). Many's the time my friendly library haas offered me back my kleenex.
But I have found strange things in books from the library. Doctors' appointment cards seem popular, and once a really torrid part of a letter. I still don't know why only a part of that letter made it into a book on Chinese history.
Yeah -- I have to admit to using Kleenex shards too. Have always been a major, explosive sneezer UNTIL LATELY WHEN I GOT A PRESCRIPTION FOR ALLEGRA AND MY LIFE HAS CHANGED! RECOMMENDED!!
(I envy you all having good libraries nearby. That's about the only tough thing about living in the boonies. But what I don't spend on parking tickets I spend at Amazon!)
Noddy, I didn't mean to cast aspersions! I'm just weird about my own books, I guess. I used to smoke a pipe (well, I still do, but not nearly as often), and I'd find that I'd leave tobacco juice residue on the pages sometimes (I hope this doesn't gross anyone out). Sometimes I'd think this gave the book a certain patina, but ultimately I disapproved of myself for letting this happen. I'm more careful now...
d'artagnan--
We are both highly spiritually evolved in a world of implacable reality.
My bookmark is usually a folded over pink "While You Were Out" paper. Nothing fancy for me.
Perhaps there is a psychic dimension involved in our choice as to how to mark our place in a book. I was struck by Piffka's saying that she never uses bookmarks. Clearly, we go from this somewhat anarchic approach to more controlled techniques. But we all experience enlightenment from time to time.
One light, though the lamps be many...
I never mar a book on purpose. Cough. But, I tend to fall asleep while reading, squash, crunch. Or get just a wee bit of coffee on it.
If I run into a paragraph I really like, I remember the page number....for a few days. I like bookmarks, especially from bookstores out of town, and the Florentine paper bookmarks from my local travel book store, Going Places.
I sometimes use these bookmarks, but more often just put the book down; even though I generally buy used books, they still tend to open at the last page read by me.
Sometimes I use old photos. That starts out by my having duplicates of some favorites and then years passing so that they are not quite the wonders they first were but I can't throw the photo out... or they were marginal photos in the first place but with some slight sentimental value...say, for example, a closeup of a travertine step in Rome (you all know I am Rome-nuts, right?) Anyway, I cut them up for the part of the photo I like...nuts, yes, yes, I know.
Really good books, nicely bound ones old or new - those I sit up straight at my desk to read, and avoid any liquid within several feet.. I am the clumsy sort.
Dog ears...I am reading an Alice Munro book of short stories right now. Well, I finished it this morning. The previous owner underlined the most significant lines for the stories (that is, one line each story) and dog-eared those pages. It was an interesting combination of very annoying and somewhat amusing to me, and dagnabbit, she was right. I just know it was a she. Why? the penmanship, note on the first page.
(Alice Munro Open Secrets 1994)
AHA! Another Alice Munro reader. She and Carol Shields (co-Canadians) are two of my favorites.
I DO NOT LIKE seeing bookshelves full of obviously unread books in perfect condition. Normally when I'm at someone's house, I find an excuse to cruise the bookshelves, but not if they are full of books that look like fakes (and sometimes are!)
THEREFORE, the paperback with the worn spine, the book with one or two bits of paper sticking out of it, the book splayed next to a comfortable armchair -- these attract me enormously. It's good to save money, I know. However I buy second hand books not because they're cheaper but because they have more character. Coffee stain? I can get over that very quickly if it's a good book!
Dog ears and coffee stains make them harder to sell back to the bookstore though...don't know how that one got by except that it was by Munro. No, matter, I keep all my Munros. Give the other bedraggleds to Salvation Army, etc.
Well, I tend to keep my books neatly on the shelves, though I do read them. What can I say in my defense? Perhaps something along the lines of: You can't judge a reader by the neatness of the books on his shelf.
Though I do have some place holders (bookmarks or scraps) in certain books on the shelf....
Aw, D'art. That's okay. My books are pretty neat on my shelves. It's whether you've gone out and bought "books by the mile" and/or have fake books that's at issue! This reminds me that one reason Strand in NYC prospers is because it's where movie people go to get the books ("by the mile") that appear on the shelves on film sets. I always try to see what books they've chosen. Or when someone's being interviewed on TV and they're sitting in front of a bookcase, my drifts away from the interview to the books. What does he read?
