Comments on: Book Condition Poll

By: Laurie

Laurie — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:59:56 +0000

I rarely crack a spine, but I’m a slow reader these days (I blame the internet and fanfic,) and my books have been accumulating small dings because I drag them everywhere I go for weeks on end.

I used to dog-ear but stopped long ago, and now I have handy little book darts to remember where I left off and which bits I want to revisit later on.

But writing in books is the ultimate no-no for me. I hated Jess on Gilmore Girls instantly and forever when he stole Rory’s book and jotted down notes in it. There’s no way I could ever like such a character.

By: Joy

Joy — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:55:02 +0000

I have NEVER cracked a spine in a book. My trading website buddies love it because when I say “like new” it really is. I’m also really picky at the UBS and have passed up some books (but not all) because they were too used looking.

I’m also very careful who I loan my keepers to. When I loaned Life of Pi to a friend, he got a 10min lecture on how to treat is.

By: Angie

Angie — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:43:36 +0000

I could put mine back on the store shelf and no one would know the difference. I’ve been obsessive like that since… probably my early teens. I never had much money to spend on books and I noticed that books with cracked spines were much more likely to start shedding pages than those without, so I started being careful. And because I am an obsessive personality in some ways, it worked up to where I don’t bend, fold, crease or mark any books for any reason. I never even wrote in or hilighted my textbooks in college. I think once I marked in a correction to something that was wrong in the text; that was incredibly weird and I felt all crawly about it, LOL!

Angie

By: Kaetrin

Kaetrin — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:38:34 +0000

I like to open the book fully, so on a paperback, that means I’m a “spine cracker” I guess (wow, sounds tough). But, I always use a bookmark - I HATE HATE HATE dog eared pages!!! Other than some spine creasing, my books look new. They’re my precious…. LOL!!

By: Anna

Anna — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:35:05 +0000

I don’t crack the spine or dog ear and my books look mostly new - though I do sling them in bags and leave them in the car and such.

Just last night I caught my stepson dog earring his book to keep his place. It killed me, but I didn’t say anything - I’m just happy he’s entranced in reading a book!! Seriously, it was pulling teeth to get him to read two years ago, I think I can overlook him dog earring and cracking the spine. Especially since it’s his book, and I’ll never read it (Halo episode ::shutter::) :)

By: BevQB

BevQB — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:09:35 +0000

Oddly enough, even though once I own a book it gets all the abuse…er… extra love I mentioned earlier, when I’m in a bookstore I always choose from behind the first book out because I MUST be the first one to read my copy!

So see? I do have SOME reverence for the sacred tomes. Besides, I read somewhere that authors love to see readers with well-read books. ;-D

By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:49:39 +0000

When I was younger, and couldn’t afford to buy all the books I was reading, I would read for HOURS in the bookstores. As a consequence, every book I finished in the store ended up looking brand new, I didn’t want to ruin the store’s inventory. When I got older and could finally finance my 4 book a week habit (it’s like cocaine! but healthy!) I never got out of that habit lol It gives me the happiest feeling to look at a book I’ve had for years on end and know that I could (hypothetically) go back to a book store and return it that day as a new book… yeah, it’s kind of strange :D

There are two books though, books that I have read so many times that they were destined to have cracked spines and peeling, corner bent covers: Forbidden by Susan Johnson and Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas.

And having my pages dog-eared gives me small heart attacks, I can never look at that book with the same love ever again :( lol

By: Jayne

Jayne — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:27:45 +0000

Pretty odd coming from the person who tears out epilogues she doesn’t like.

Hahaha! I love it DS. That’s one way to avoid going into DKA over a sugar loaded final scene.

When I find myself turning down pages and making notes in the margins of a print copy, I know the review is gonna be bad. Real bad.

By: Erastes

Erastes — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:32:04 +0000

I read in the bath, in bed, on the loo, when riding, when … my books get a rough life. This is good for authors because it means I’m often rebuying them.

By: MB (Leah)

MB (Leah) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:20:16 +0000

I crack the spine. First thing and constantly. I have to because it just hurts my hands to keep the book open, so I like it nice and loose.

DH on the other hand freaks if there is even a sign of a crack. If I read one of his books, he watches me like a hawk. LOL

I even dog-ear sometimes too; for the same reasons Bev does. That’s one feature I love about my ebookwise, the ability to bookmark a page.

Yo- Bev, holla… :-)