Dog-earred Debate

I cannot bring myself to dog ear my books or write in them, even my text books. It doesn't bother me when other people do, except to my books, but it feels like wrong for me to alter the book like that. I have books that Ive read so often that the covers are falling of and the pages are worn, and thats okay. Even to those i couldn't consciously harm them. I always have to have a book mark or just remember the page number.
How do you guys feel about dog earing your books?

Never! The dastardly behavior of dog-earring is detestable and destructive.

I don't mind dog-eared pages. They make my books feel cozy, lived-in, and loved. That said, I don't alter books that I plan on swapping.

For some reason, dog-earring drives me nuts, even though I write all over my books. I use little post-it tabby things to mark passages instead of dog-ears, and usually a business card or whatever's lying around for a bookmark.

No objection to dog ears, but I hated it when my brother read one of my books - he used to tear out a piece from the edge to keep his place.

I don't dog-ear, but I don't mind if a few pages get that way. For technical stuff, I use those little sticky flags. For other stuff, I use a torn off piece of paper or the receipt from the library when I check out folded neatly.

I'm going to jump on the Bandwagon with swizzlestick and CEP about being against dog-earring books. It doesn't feel right to me so I'll one of my book marks I happen to handy, I've been known to use scrap pieces of paper, Baseball Cards, Post-It Notes, my Library Card or anything that is small enough to use.

When a book is dog-eared it means it was a well read and loved book. And maybe if I hadn't come along to buy them they have been tossed out and forgotten about. So in a sense you can say I saved the book from a fate it doesn't deserve. Maybe they had read the book many, many times over the years. I have copies of Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy where the covers are faded with age and some pages may have been dog-eared by previous owners over the years but that only enhances the books character and appeal to me instead of being crisp, brand new, bright and clean.

I have some of the old Unwin paperback editions of The Hobbit and LOTR. You know it's been around the block a few times just by looking at them. And I love to read The Hobbit and the Trilogy on a yearly basis. I have bought books where I have found pages that were dog-eared by someone else or even had notes written in the margins or underlined which doesn't really bother me because I get to look inside someone else's mind and see what they were thinking when they wrote their notes. Maybe they had to do it because they needed to make notes for a Class or Course they were taking at the time. It also helps me to understand the book a little bit better because they'll explain what the Author meant when they said something.

beatles1964

I have very bad book reading habits, and dog-ear pages of interest freely and without guilt. In fact, if a book isn't dog-eared, it's a good indication I didn't like it.

I don't dog-ear to keep my place, but I do dog-ear pages that I will return to. Generally, this means a passage or quote that I found beautiful or meaningful, or that I utterly disagreed with (so that I can go back a few times and see whether I still do, and why). I used to just underline these passages, but then it takes too long to flip through the book and find everything. So now I underline and dog-ear.

If I swap or resell a book, that means that I didn't find anything worth dog-earing/returning to. So it's not a problem for any subsequent owners of the book.

#8: Ah! A kindred spirit.

Actually, I dislike thick bookmarks more than I dislike dog-earing. I just cringe when I see a book bent around this thick slab of leather the wife uses as a bookmark. That can *not* be good for the spine and the binding.

Dog earing has to be better for books than what I do to keep my place-the book gets put down with the pages still opened. I must be killing spines every day. But it doesn't seem to effect my hardbacks and there are very few paperbacks I'm too concerned about. I really shouldn't do it because my son has a nasty habit of closing the books by accident-knocking them off whatever chair arm or end table they happen to be perched on. At least 5% of my reading time is generally taken up by finding my place.

I'd make a terrible archivist-I think books are meant to be read, thrown in bags and toted around everywhere, mulled over, propped open while eatting-all this means that my books look very loved. I also loan my books out quite a bit. I think not being too obsessed about how they look makes more of my friends willing to borrow books; they don't feel pressured to return a pristine book to me.

I mentioned this in another thread and am not at home so I can't look it up in the book, but Anne Fadiman, in the delightful Ex Libris, has a wonderful essay on the distinction between carnal and courtly book lovers/readers. I fall in the carnal camp.

I have never dog-eared books. I have plenty of old business cards that I use for book marks and they work fine and do not damage the book.
I have a running debate with myself about writing in books. I wrote in textbooks, particularly in law school. In How to Read a Book Mortimer Adler recommends writing in books. He says that the writing helps to understand the book and makes the book your own. I have written in a few essays and it was useful. I am not sure why I don't write in books, maybe it is just an emotional quirk. On the one hand it is useful but on the other hand it looks messy. As of today I choose not to write in books.

I know I'm prissy but I can't bring myself to ruin a book by bending the pages or writing in them. I'm so anal that when I get a book from the library that someone else has written in I'll erase as I go.

I agree with the other posters mentioning post it page markers/flags. I use Post-it 1" x 3" Neon Page Markers, they're $2.99 for a package of 200 at Staples. I also can't bring myself to write on, bend, dog ear, highlight, or in any other way mutilate a book. I was very tempted recently though to highlight a book that was really speaking to me.

#14> "I have never dog-eared books. I have plenty of old business cards that I use for book marks and they work fine and do not damage the book."

Yes, that's me, exactly! Old business cards are great bookmarks. I like to write the name of the book on the blank side of the business card, but for the life of me I can't figure out why. Sometimes I write the number of pages the book has on the back of the card, as well. That way I can tell how far along I am, pct-wise, without having to constantly check, since I can never remember the page count on my own. Why does matter to me? For the life of me I can't figure out why, except to say that if I'm reading a history book that might have an index at the end and a bibliography and a few pages of acknowledgements, etc.--all that stuff I never read, in other words--I can't always figure out whether I'm halfway through the book yet, or whatever.

Oh, gosh, I just realized I've gotten a bit carried away here. I should be on the book neurosis thread now, shouldn't I?

Anyhow, I just want to say that although I never dog-ear books myself, I agree with Beatles1964 that picking up a used book that the previous owner has dog-eared doesn't bother me a bit. It's sort of like a bit of biblio-archeology: someone else has passed this way before me. I kind of like that. But I will not buy a used book that has passages highlighted or underlined. I'm not judgmental about the practice. It's a "to each his/her own" issue, definitely. I just don't enjoy reading books thusly marked.

Finally, Dog Eared Books is one of my favorite used books stores in San Francisco. Had to get that in.

OK, I'm done!

If I'm in a used book store and wind up buying some books I won't know if they have been dog eared, pages highlighted, underlined or have some notes in the margins until I get back home and look at them.

I'll buy the book because I like the Author and try to buy as many of their books as possible, the cover jumped out at me and said "Buy Me", it's a subject or genre I read, it may be an Author that is new to me or even a book I have heard of and never gotten around to getting before now or even one of the Classics.

beatles1964

You don't even thumb through the book while in the store? How do you know that it doesn't have pages falling out?

>15 mstrust:
I'm the opposite. I love to find library books (or used books) that people have written in because it gives me a fuller perspective on whatever I"m reading. I find myself rereading lines that are underlined. "What's important here?" I think to myself. The same goes for notes. I love it!

As for dog-earing, I don't really do it anymore but I used to.

In a word, No. I never thumb through books when I'm browsing through a Used Book Stor other than maybe to check out how long the book is. Besides if any pages would fall out they would fall out when you picked the book up. I just usually go by the description of what a book is about by whatever it says on the back cover and think Wow this sound cool! Unless I happen to know it's something I don't already own by own of my favorite Authors.

However when I first discover an Author that is new to me and they have severl different books by that Author I will pick them up on impulse. For example I had always heard what a truly great book The Mists Of Avalon was so I picked it up and bought several more books by Marion Zimmer Bradley. And I did the same thing for Marge Piercy, Margaret Atwood, and anyone else I have never bothered to read or collect before then.

beatles1964

I dog-ear with glee and free abandon. At times, I find an anti-dog-earer and tie them to a chair and make them watch me dog-ear books for hours on end.

Truthfully though, I've never had a problem with dog-earing my books. I couldn't do it to someone else's book, including the library's.

(nb: I just ended a sentence with a possessive, I'm sure that breaks 82 grammar rules. I'm a literary rebel today)

You are a wild person!!!!

I used to be really anal about my books and wouldn't loan them out or open them too far because I didn't want to bend the spine.

Unfortunately, none of my friends will really read unless I shove one of my books into their hands and tell them "Read this!" They don't return my books to me in pristine condition, but I find that being able to talk with them about books I love is much more rewarding then having good looking books.

I'm not so picky about my books anymore. I'll even write in them now if something strikes me as particularly interesting and if a book has many passages that I like to reread (like Good Omens), I'll dog-ear those passages.

I dog ear books all the time. Sometimes I'll use a bookmark if there's one close at hand and I'm feeling virtuous but I treat my books pretty badly over. My books are dog-eared, written in and used as coasters routinely.