Why I Love... Treating Books Well

I love to treat books well. I don't dog-ear pages, I use a book mark. I try as hard as I can not to break the spines. I neither underline nor highlight (books I was assigned in college are exempted from this). When the book is a hardcover, I remove the dust-jacket for the duration of my reading time. It is my hope that after I finish reading a book it will look the same as when I started.

Why do I do this? Beats me.

A beat-up book is just as usable as a new book. I purchase well-worn used books all the time. Wear and tear is not a deterrence to my enjoyment of a book. In fact, I enjoy perusing books to see if a previous reader has left marginalia or other tell-tale signs of enjoyment. If I lend a book to someone, and it's returned the little worse for wear, I don't care. It goes back on my shelf to be read another day.



I may treat my books gently but they are still well loved.

This post was spurred by today's post by Screwy Decimal.