I've imagined my books showing up in all kinds of settings: obviously in a bookstore, or in somebody's beach bag, and even in a grocery cart, because of course books are on the same level of "essential need" as coffee beans or chocolate-covered pretzels.
I also love the thought of my books being in libraries. I've been going to libraries for hundreds of years, because it blew my little childhood mind to discover I could get books FOR FREE every time I went there. Anything I wanted, from the huge tempting selection spread out before me. And not just one book. LOTS OF THEM. ALL AT ONCE.
I won't even describe the ecstasy of getting my own library card.
One thing I have a hard time imagining for my precious books is that awful practice so common to library books: a folded-down corner of the page, to mark the reader's place.
[Insert eardrum piercing horror-movie scream here.]
I am in the midst of reading a library book right now, and I turned the page to start a new chapter – Chapter 1, actually, which is right after the prologue -- and THE PAGE IS TURNED DOWN. Actually you can see the scar, from when it was turned down before this book landed in my hands.
C'mon people! We're only five pages in, and you can't possibly remember Chapter 1 is where you need to pick up the book again? This is why bookmarks were invented (before they became promotional opportunities, of course).
Now I will admit I rarely use an ACTUAL bookmark. I always lose them. I can never find them, so when I'm searching for something to hold my place, I never stumble across a real-live, designed-for-this-purpose bookmark. So I definitely understand those emergency situations when the only available option seems to be "crease the corner of a page".
But since I can't bear to do that, I use THINGS as bookmarks.
There's always some odd tidbit laying around that I can use, and none of them require a book to withstand pain in the process. The most common bookmark for me is a receipt. I seem to have way more receipts than books, and lots of those receipts are from the books I've bought, so I've never run out of potential bookmarking material.
I've also used business cards I've picked up because I like the design, as well as postcards from people who travel to exciting locations and can't wait to tell stuck-at-home me about it. Those little triangular stickers on the top of a book that say "Buy 1 Get 1 50% off" are good, but you have to make sure you fold them in half first so the sticky parts are stuck together. No point in causing a different style of damage to a book.
Years ago I used an envelope for a bill I was getting ready to mail, but then I forgot to mail it, because apparently I didn't pick the book up again for a while (which is another reason authors need to make sure their stories are unputdownable – a reader's credit score could be at risk).
I got a call from the library recently to tell me I'd left a Starbucks gift card in one of the books I'd returned. If it had had any money left on it, I would have suggested they go get a treat--on me--because I love to support libraries in any way I can. Unfortunately I'd already used it up, which is why it had become a bookmark.
So if it's your book, you are welcome to turn the pages down all you want. But a public book? One that will have many readers? Some of the more popular books in the library don't even have any pages left unblemished. The book just needs to be spray painted gold and it's a decoration for the Christmas table next year.
This clearly isn't an issue with e-books. But until we've completely obliterated paper as a reading medium, I can only hope that people will treat books with the reverence they deserve and devise clever and creative bookmark alternatives.
Especially when my books finally find their way into libraries.
*ROTFLMAO* DRD, you always crack me up.
I used to be a hardcore dogearrer. (Incidentally if anyone did that to my Harry Potter or Twilight books, they'd find their fingers broken.)
Dogearring isn't the worst that can happen. I lent a book to my sister--I *LOVED* this book, thought it was hilarious--and by the time it got back to me, it looked like it had been dropped into a bathtub like three times (with water, obviously), ran over with a car, dragged behind the car, and used to prop up a lame table for a time. That was the last time I lent my sister so much as a post-it.
Posted by: Hellion | May 05, 2010 at 03:39 PM
Hellion, I cringed reading about your poor book! I'm crazy about being nice to books -- obviously some childhood warning that burrowed deep into my brain. You should see the paperbacks I've already read -- the SPINES aren't cracked or creased. LOL The only way I know for sure that I've actually read them is to look at the first few pages again!
Posted by: Donna Cummings | May 05, 2010 at 04:50 PM
I'm so with you on this! I've never dogearred pages in all my years of reading. And that's A LOT of years. But I used to never have a bookmark close by when I needed one. And you DO NOT set the book open face down until the next time. No no no no no. I will admit, these strict practices have resulted in an impromptu bookmark being made out of a single square of TP. (TMI?)
Posted by: Terri | May 05, 2010 at 08:51 PM
Terri -- I will confess to ONCE IN A WHILE setting a book open face down -- but just while I go look for a bookmark! And I'm laughing out loud about your resourcefulness, with the one square. LOL I applaud your devotion to keeping pages free from dogears!
Posted by: Donna Cummings | May 05, 2010 at 10:32 PM
I agree 100%. *sheepish look* I will stop doing this now. I'm kidding! Okay, I admit I'm a reformed page corner turner. I like to use those little post-it flags as my book marks, but you're right that anything will do. Once I got a library book with a $3 scratch off someone used as a bookmark. But then I reused it as a bookmark too (it was there!) and I'm pretty sure I left it when I returned it. :) I guess all books should come with bookmarks...but not the tempting kind.
Posted by: Melissa | May 11, 2010 at 03:59 PM
Melissa, of course -- Post-its! Those are my favorite, but I always seem to lose THOSE too! LOL (It's hard to be a packrat when you keep losing all your STUFF!)
I like the recycled scratch ticket bookmark too. It's like there's tons of bookmark possibilities!
Posted by: Donna Cummings | May 11, 2010 at 07:42 PM