That is, indeed, the question. According to Anne Fadiman, author of Ex-Libris - Confessions of a Common Reader (which you will all love but I no longer have a copy...), there are two kinds of people in this world: Those who fold pages and those who do not.
Some see folding the corners as the indelible mark of enjoying and loving a book, while others think it is pure sacrilige. Thoughts?
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4 comments:
I love it! Personally I've always been a part of the love-your-books-to-death-brigade, which could be why i have so many in such bad condition. They're meant to be read on the bus, in the park, in the bath, shoved in a handbag, and lugged around everywhere. Wear and tear (and for uni books pencilled underlines and notes in teh margins) are signs of well loved books, ones you couldn't bear to put down, ones you read while cooking dinner etc.
Don't worry though I show respect for other people's books. To the point of hardly opening them so they don't get spine creases, heh heh. My mum suggests I get a mirror so I only have to open them a crack, so much do I want to garner the willingness of book lenders.
Um, please don't fold the pages of my books. LOL.
I try not to even crack the spine on paperbacks.
I'm ridiculous, I know.
My policy is to fold nothing but poetry - that I can't resist because I don't have the patience to look up the particular poem I'm chasing and generally fold the pages on my favourites.
Don't worry, although I do play rough with my books I don't fold the pages. I'm a big fan of bookmarks and they're always left behind in books when I've finished them. It's weird lending the book to someone a year later and finding a cinema ticket for a movie you saw at the time you first read it or some such still inside it.
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