I was taken to task on Monday night. Yes, me. Yes, taken to task.
Why, I hear you ask, was this colossus of industry treated in such a derogatory fashion? Why, for marking my page by folding the corner over in a book. Aparrently this enrages some book owners even (and i'd like to make this point quite clear) when the book belongs to me in the first fucking place.
According to these OCD suffering, niggling pedants, books are not there to be used in any fashion but are to remain pristine and, I assume, unread. To do anything more than place them in a bookshelf sullies them, or somesuch tommyrot.
Well let me tell you something, bucko. I read. Constantly. And you know what? I fucking well read books however I please. If I want to *shock! horror!* bend the odd corner over, I will. If I want to keep it in my bag and read it in my lunch break and get a bit of mustard or whatever on it, I will. I paid for it and if I want to use it to wipe my arse on, I will. Thankfully I no longer read Kevin J Anderson so this last step is rarely necessary.
Furthermore, I like my books with character. I remember reading the first of the Lensman Series (Triplanetary) and every pages was dogeared and yellow from age. Fantastic! There was a book that had been well-read and loved. It hadn't spent it's life taking up space on some arsehole's holy sterile bookshelf, watching him force people to use coasters, take their shoes off before entering the house and sit on the plastic-covered couch.
There. That's you fucking telt.
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1 comment:
I agree with you in that if you are the owner of a book, you can do whatever you want to it. Some of my books are falling apart due to over-reading, and some of them have accidentally been given a dunking when I was reading them in the bath. Nevertheless, I will re-glue and re-cover the books if I really enjoy them.
I do like to keep my books sans-mustard and less dog-eared in terms of the fact that I might want to exchange it, or sell it on ebay. However if I'm getting a book from a second-hand store, I don't mind if it's been pre-loved.
As long as the words are in there, it's legible, and not falling apart [1] then it's fine with me.
I am very careful with other people's books, and I expect them to follow the same rules. If they want to mark their own books then that's fine with me, but I don't want anyone messing with mine!
[1] Justin gave me a copy of "Crashlander" by Larry Niven but somehow the last few pages got lost.
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