Dog Ears

I have a confession to make.


I dog-ear books.

YES I SAID IT, DOG-EAR.


As a quick, dirty, and highly accurate poll, I asked one of my fellow library student friends if she ever dog-eared her books, and if so, which ones? She was horrified at the thought. Unless perhaps it was a very old and already beat-up book (not "antique" old and beat-up, mind you -- just the kind of old and beat-up that happens when a 6th grader takes The Lost World along on a field trip, and it gets kicked down the aisle of a school bus on accident).

Personally, I adore both well-loved books, and pristine and well-cared-for books. I love them both at the same time. I can never decide which I like best. This aesthetic carries over into pretty much everything else. How can you love French Minimalist and Shabby Chic at the same time? Let me tell you, it makes interior decorating both delightful and hellish. I tried to make a scrapbook once, and it just got really mangled and sort of schizophrenic in content.

At any rate.

Trade paperbacks, I dog-ear. Except my Laurie R. King books. I think. I may have dog-eared some of them, but they are all on loan now to my non-dog-earing friend so I cannot check. I intend to dog-ear my sociology books that I was talking about a few posts ago, but was having doubts. You see, they are in fairly pristine condition. And yet, they are just trade paperbacks, there is nothing particularly special about them. I wonder if psychologically, I might read them more readily if I got past the fear of damaging them.

It's mostly psychology, I think. My (trade paperback) copy of Shantaram, I will not dog-ear. I read it readily enough, and also, it was a gift. I'll never dog-ear a hardcover. Or a comic book, because you need to read all the way to the corners. I probably won't dog-ear anything that was first published before 1930, unless
a. I hate it (looking at you, Great Gatsby)
b. It's one of my multiple copies I have bought specifically for the purpose of having a "pocket" copy (most notably, Pride and Prejudice).

But I also have some trades that I bought, that are just... too nice right now to dog-ear. They haven't been dropped on the floor often enough, I guess.

Going to book hell?

Or librarian hell?