People who mark books by folding the corner of a page

[nino_savatte]

What gets me more is people who have to lick their fucking finger before turning every page.
Yuk!

That is well mingin'!

 

[teecee]

I bend books ,I fold them backwards ,I bend pages . I even throw them across the room in fits of excitement- then I pass them on (but not before removing the last few pages )[yes ... joke]

Ok maybe not that extreme but what gets me is people who are so anal that the packaging is more important than the content. Dont get me wrong I am and always have been a complete bookworm and love my books but I like my books to look like they've been loved too. Not that ooooh put them on a glass pedestal kind of love, but the kind of love that shows life has been experienced and enjoyed to the full. I don't want to have to pull myself back to reality just to remind myself not to bend a book a bit too much

I love books for what they can tell me not for how they look.

 

[J77]

Don't see the problem.

 

[Major Tom]

I am in the 'a crime punishable by death' camp. This probably doesn't come of much of a surprise.

For those of you who say you do it to your own books, I'm curious to know what happens if you should read the book again. Do the pre-folded corners annoy you or do you wonder what you were doing the last time you read it that caused you to stop on that particular page?

no

And what happens if you lend the book to someone? Does it irritate you if they treat your book as casually as you do? Or do you not give a flying fuck?

flying fuck

 

[bmd]

If it's not mine I'll look after it and return it in the same state as I got it, if it's mine I'll fold the corner of the page over, drop it, bend it, fold the pages right back so that it stays open on the page I'm on, lick my finger and turn the page, I even fold the page in half diagonally sometimes. I know! I'm just kerrrrazzeee.

Let's face it, it's not like I've got the only copy on the planet.

 

[Pickman's model]

when i was younger (much younger) i used to fold the pages. then i noticed that bus tickets/travelcards &c made excellent bookmarks. unlike bookmarks.

 

[In Bloom]

Does it really matter? I love books, but for the words they contain, not the bits of paper they're written on.

Some people really need a reality check.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

Good instincts are good.

 

[Major Tom]

When I use a book mark it quite often falls out when the book is in my bag.

And always falls into the bath when i open the book up.

I like bending the pages back. I demand the right to bend my pages back.


For those who revere the physical book - what would you do with Mein Kampf? or some other hate-filled piece of shit?

Books are just a medium not something to be worshipped.

 

[KellyDJ]

It's the reason that I hate lending out books. I hate hate hate it.

 

[Idris2002]

I normally abhor the practice.

But last weekend I read a spy novel that was without exagerration the worst thing I have ever read anywhere.

To indicate my displeasure I did indeed fold down one corner of one page of this execrable 'book'.

 

[trashpony]

Books are just a medium not something to be worshipped.

I disagree. I can often remember where I was when a read a book for the first time, what was going on around me and who I was with. In that sense, they work for me as a repository of memories.

Books differ from other media in the sense that you interact with them on an invididual and physical level - it's an active, rather than passive experience.

 

[Major Tom]

Books differ from other media in the sense that you interact with them on an invididual and physical level

By bending the pages and dropping them in the bath.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

By bending the pages and dropping them in the bath.

 

[oneflewover]

What gets me more is people who have to lick their fucking finger before turning every page.
Yuk!

The Name Of The Rose? woops - said - sorry teepee should have read to end of thread first


Back to OP - Not using bookmarks - defacing and lazy.

 

[oneflewover]

what would you do with Mein Kampf?

Study, learn and educate others to it insipidness?

 

[christonabike]

I roach mine when there's no other material at hand

Little corners of the cover GONE FOREVER

Makes me smile

You freaks would probably shit yerselves

 

[stereotypical]

My sister does this. Proper does my head in aswell, I like to keep my books all nice and that.

Go to the library and pick up a handful of them free ones, you annoying page folding sods

 

[Derian]

My sister does this. Proper does my head in aswell, I like to keep my books all nice and that.

Go to the library and pick up a handful of them free ones, you annoying page folding sods

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

Good independent book shops often give you a free book mark with each purchase.

But what about cook books? My fav Italian veggie cook book is in a complete state, spine snapped, pages loose, covered in variety of unidentified sticky stuff, pages stuck together....God, actually it sounds like a porno when i write it down

 

[oi2002]

This is a ridiculous habit. A piece of lightly fried streaky bacon is all you need for a bookmark.

 

[Groucho]

I am a bit obsessive about books - to the point where I will spend half an hour in a bookshop going through the pile of shiny new copies of the one I want just to make sure that the one I'm buying doesn't have even the slightest mark or wrinkle.

I like to keep them pristine.

Why am I not surprised to find you on this thread?

 

[madamv]

Fold, fold and then fold again my beauties.... Most of the pages of a good paperback get loved off.... In my house anyway

 

[Ich bin ein Mod]

I don't understand people who say their bookmarks fall out when their books are in their bags. I've never had this happen to me. Are you all using shoddy bookmarks? Do you have strange bookmark-attracting bags?

 

[Derian]

No-one's yet convinced me of a good reason to fold the corners down, I stand by my early-in-the-thread-vote so far ... also, I've just thought of another reason why bookmarks are best. Postcards. I love unusual postcards and usually buy a couple wherever I go. Then I use them as bookmarks. I've a pile of postcards (with scribblings) by my books. Whenever I reach for a book, I reach for a postcard. Quite often I'll go to reread a book and it already has a postcard inside it - sometimes from years ago. A voyage of nostalgia. Bookmarks rule

 

[fishfinger]

I never turn down corners in books, and do feel a little uncomfortable about others who do.

The most bizarre form of bookmarking I ever saw, was by a woman on a train. After reading a page from her book, she simply tore it out! Over the next couple of hours, a large pile of loose pages covered her table. She left the train with a much thinner book, but at least she didn't need a book mark, or have to turn down a corner

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

now that is taking it to extremes!

extreme reading? is this a new sport? have the kiwis cottoned on to it yet?

 

[Iam]

I don't, but it's not a sanctity of books thing or anything, I need bookmarks to ever be able to find my place again. It's someone's business card atm.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

I never, ever used to. For years, nay a couple of decades, I wouldn't. But lots of other people seemed to. And as I'd grown to realise I do have some OCD/anal behaviour tendencies, I thought I ought to snap out of it and chill out like everyone else. And now I discover I wasn't alone and wasn't necessarily being overly obsessive!

Haven't and wouldn't do it to anyone else's book though, as that would be rude, only my own.

 

[onemonkey]

completely shit poll..

books are about their words not their pristine condition.. okay of library books it is a bit rude.. but for a book you have bought yourself you should be allowed to do what the fuck you like with it..

i never need to turn the corner of a page to remember where i am reading and i guess i am sliightly disdainful of people who do but especially for book group if there is a particular passage i want to mark (and i don't have a pen*) then i turn the top or bottom corner in to point to this interesting section... half a page at a time if i need to make a point to myself or line up the corner with a particular word.

books are your personal experience of thought, word and deed not absolute tablets of stone handed down by soem bibliophilic god. books are living things and (perhaps sad to say) they have a limited shelf life.. the "abused" book in the hands of your typical tube traveller will not need to survive much beyond the end of the journey.. if their attention span is too short or time too precious to remember where they were up to then so be it .. the book they are reading will be forgot..

if it is my own book and i intend to keep it then i want to be reminded of the bits that grabbed me first time round.. i used to be in awe of books now i am in awe of words... and i have learnt that writing on books or folding the corners of pages doesn't change the words and adds to books.

I was in Senate House Library today and i picked out a book that has been pristine for about 15 years.. it was only marginally of interest to me and much less so for the fact that it looked like no one else had even cracked it's spine in that time. infinitely more sad than a few folded corners


*i.e. only when i don't have a pen to scribble on the thing or the opportunity to drop it in the bath