Hi everyone! This is my first time posting a topic! Yay! It's not really a very serious topic. A few times I've heard that dogearing a book is disrespectful. I'm kinda too cheap to buy a bookmark, when I can just dogear it. So, I was just wondering if it really is disrespectful and if you guys use bookmarks, or dogear the pages.
Posted by eslaine (Member # 5433) on :
I gave up dogears long ago.
Now I just cat ear.
Posted by Youth ap Orem (Member # 5582) on :
That's even more disrespectful!
Posted by Christy (Member # 4397) on :
I generally use receipts or other useless scraps for bookmarks even though I get quite a few as gifts. They never seem to be handy.
Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
I like to peel the price tags off of books I buy and make chains out of them to use as bookmarks. Not only do I not screw up the pages, but it's also a handy little record of what I've been reading lately.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
just in case someone asks? Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
Border's gives you free bookmarks when you buy a book. I have a drawer full of them. Of course, I also us post-it notes, mail, or receipts, so . . .
Posted by Youth ap Orem (Member # 5582) on :
Speaking of book accessories. Does anyone own the booklight clip thing. Where you click on this little light so you can read at night where ever you are.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I don't think it's so much disrespectful as impractical. How do you know which dogear is your place? What if you read the same book over and over? What if others read it as well?
Except if it's a library book it's definitely uncool. Something I do that I'm not supposed to is lay the book down open to hold my spot. Very naughty. I try not to, but I figure it's better than using a dirty candy wrapper for a bookmark.
Posted by tonguetied&twisted (Member # 5159) on :
It depends on whether the book has been previously dog-eared. If it is new-looking, I'll use a bookmark. Actually, I tell a lie. I never use bookmarks, I use scraps of paper or whatever happens to be lying next to me. Posted by Christy (Member # 4397) on :
Yup, we have one. The batteries die awfully fast, but they're handy.
Posted by Head Ditch Digger (Member # 5085) on :
Paperback - dog-ear
Hardback - Any piece of paper I can find.
Posted by Youth ap Orem (Member # 5582) on :
I laid down my COTM book while it was open, and the pages started falling out? Is there anyway to get a refund?
Posted by tonguetied&twisted (Member # 5159) on :
I don't like when people lay down my books while open. I doubt you could get a refund for it, but I guess maybe if you just did it once, like the first time you read it. MAYBE.
Posted by Eruve Nandiriel (Member # 5677) on :
I treat my books with respect, they look new after being read several times. Bookmarks.
Posted by Youth ap Orem (Member # 5582) on :
I treat my books with love, but I guess i'm just a rough lover, cause after one read, they look worn.
Posted by Rappin' Ronnie Reagan (Member # 5626) on :
Dogearing doesn't really bother me, but I can't stand highlighting. I can't do it at all in books I own, and it even bugs me when I see other people's books that are that way.
Posted by Youth ap Orem (Member # 5582) on :
Who highlights fiction novels?
Posted by Lead (Member # 918) on :
Dog-earing a page in a book decreases it's value, just as any damage to the book (creases in pages or covers, tears, missing dust-jackets, damage to bindings, marks on pages, etc) does. While not all of my books are of much resale value, some are, and some might become of value some day, if the condition is good. Of course, I'd sooner remove one of my arms than sell off any of my books, but my general philosophy with books is to treat them gently, and not to damage them in any way I can avoid. This means, among other things, never laying a book face-down while open (and in fact never "cracking" the binding wide open in any manner), and never EVER dog-earing pages. I use whatever scrap of paper I have at hand as bookmarks, even though I have a collection of actual bookmarks. They, however, are an extension of my actual book collection -- I collect bookmarks from all bookstores I purchase from, especially the indipendant and used bookstores, and they're a part of the record of when and where I have obtained my books -- so I don't actually use them.
~~~Lead
Posted by Lead (Member # 918) on :
Actually, I will admit to one exception to my policy on book treatment, and that's highlighting in computer reference texts. I do make notes, highlight important bits, and generally mark them right to hell. I still don't dog-ear, but I'll use post-it tags to mark pages I've made notes on. But I don't consider my computer texts as part of my book collection, but rather as tools of my trade, to be used accordingly.
Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :
You know those annoying subscription cards they put in magazines? They make the best bookmarks.
I never, ever dogear books. Just can't bring myself to do it. Never have, even when I was a kid.
I do, however, write in books and highlight them. I probably have said this before somewhere around here, but marginal notes and highlights are my way of interacting with a book (only books I own, of course - that should go without saying). I always read with a pen or pencil in my hand, even when I'm reading a novel. The annotations often come in handy when I go back to the book later to find a reference, and when I write book reviews, which I do occasionally.
Posted by ana kata (Member # 5666) on :
See, I think notes in a book makes it much more valuable both to me and to anyone who reads it afterward. I don't usually make any notes on fiction books, but for my textbooks and my technical books, oh yeah! I mark them all up whenever I use them. For instance, if I refer to something and use it, like in my Marks handbook for Mechanical Engineers (which is one of the coolest books of all times) I always mark it, I simplify the formulas in ways that make sense for my application, and usually put a tab on that page too. That way once I've figured something out, I can get my head back in the same state again with much less time and effort. In my job I DO tend to need things again that I've needed once before. I've found notes in books make them worth much more to me. And maybe my biographers will appreciate it too. Sort of like Fermat's Last Theorem and cool things like that found in notes in margins of people's books.
I do try to use a bookmark instead of dogearing, though. A sticky note is perfect since it doesn't tend to fall out as easily as any other sort of bookmark. Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
I can't bring myself to dogear a book (not counting textbooks, of course). However, I hate the bookmarks they sell because they're so oversized. I don't need some enormous hunk of cardboard wrapped in plastic to find my place; in fact, such a bookmark is more likely to fall out, in my experience. Instead, I use little things that have some sentimental value to me, like my ticket to UM's 1998 shocker over UCLA, an old Indigo Girls concert ticket, or my first (expired) Disney World Annual Pass. I have a handful of these things, which I use over and over again, so they're not just random scraps of junk.
Getting weirder now, I actually put several bookmarks in my books. I don't have the attention span to not be daunted by a huge book (though I'm an extemely voracious reader) so I pace myself by leaving a bookmark at the quarter point, which I will move when I get to it to the 1/3 point, then the halfway point, etc. Of course, should I measure by the page or by the chapter? I do both, so at any time, there are three bookmarks in a book I am reading.
I suppose this is a good time to mention I am OC . . .
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
The only time I will write in a fiction book is when it contains something that is just plain wrong, most notably a factual error or a typo (or incorrect grammar that does not fall under creative license.
Posted by ana kata (Member # 5666) on :
Oh, I just remembered that I DO write in fiction books sometimes. If the author uses a word I don't know and I don't have a dictionary handy, I will underline it (assuming I have a pencil handy) and make an arrow you can see on the edge of the page. This way when I DO get near a dictionary or back to my computer I can easily find them again to look them up. Doesn't happen that often but Stephen Donaldson introduced me to a WHOLE BUNCH of cool new words, and so did Neal Stephenson. (Is he the one who wrote The Diamond Age? Whichever Neal that was.) Michael Innis is usually good for a half dozen super awesome new words, too. It always impresses me when an author knows words I don't know, doesn't it you? <laughs>
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It's not really a very serious topic. A few times I've heard that dogearing a book is disrespectful. I'm kinda too cheap to buy a bookmark, when I can just dogear it. So, I was just wondering if it really is disrespectful and if you guys use bookmarks, or dogear the pages.
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