Book Confessions Meme

I rarely participate in any of this internet “tagging” but Kevin Holtsberry hit me with one I couldn’t refuse.  It’s about books and how you treat them.

1. To mark your page you: use a bookmark, bend the page corner, leave the book open face down?

I occasionally leave a book open face down, but I almost always dog-ear the corner of the page I’m on and shut the book.  When I try to do this with my six year old son’s books, he reprimands me for not using a book mark as he has been taught to do at his fascist public school.  🙂

2. Do you lend your books?

I loan books because I want to influence people’s thoughts about the world.  I usually don’t get them back.  It’s not something I judge the human race about because it is very easy to forget you have borrowed a CD or a book.  I’m sure I have done it myself.

3. You find an interesting passage: you write in your book or NO WRITING IN BOOKS!

Not only do I write extensively in books by bracketing text, underlining text, and adding marginalia, but I also write in library books.  I know this is a vile habit which horrifies anyone I tell, but I can’t help but note places that meant something to me.  I promise I do it in a very modest and not very noticeable manner.

4. Dust jackets – leave it on or take it off.

OFF.  They are an impediment and were not made to be long for this world.  I used to remove them while reading and replace them.  Then, I started putting them in a drawer.  My wife threw them away one day.  I freaked out for several minutes and then realized, so what?

5. Hard cover, paperback, skip it and get the audio book?

Hardbacks are unnecessary for me.  I probably like the trade paperback format the most for ease of handling and reading.  Of course, I keep getting more and more interested in using the Kindle to read.

6. Do you shelve your books by subject, author, or size and color of the book spines?

I shelve them so as to get them off of other furniture and keep my wife from injuring me.  Not much rhyme or reason except that I usually isolate the mass paperbacks and keep my very favorite books downstairs in the best bookcase.
7. Buy it or borrow it from the library later?

I don’t use the library much these days.  Amazon turned me into a serious book buyer.  Especially Amazon marketplace.

8. Do you put your name on your books – scribble your name in the cover, fancy bookplate, or stamp?

I used a beautiful book embossing device that says Baker Family Library — Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.  It is a treasured gift from a friend.

9. Most of the books you own are rare and out-of-print books or recent publications?

Highly eclectic mix of books.  I am becoming averse to really old books because the dust and mildew affects as I age.

10. Page edges – deckled or straight?

Straight.  I think the rough cut book pages are just a little precious.  You have the technology to do it straight, so just do it that way.

11. How many books do you read at one time?

I frequently have multiple books going at one time.  If I am reading only one book, that is a sure sign that it is a marvelous read.

12. Be honest, ever tear a page from a book?

Are you a barbarian?  Leave me and go sack Washington, D.C.