Tuesday 5 April 2016

Dog Ears

Derbeth dog ears his books.
By Derbeth (Own work) [CC BY 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons
I confess.

I  dog-ear the pages of a book to keep my place. Always have.

I could never make bookmarks work the way they should. I found they would fall out and lose my place, or get lost when I took them out to read.

Plenty of my childhood books have those bendy, tattered deckle-edged corners where I have dog-eared my book to keep my place.

Fortunately, most books I read nowadays are eBooks. I can't dog ear them; I must use bookmarks. At least when I toss my Kobo into my bag, those bookmarks do not fall out.

Today's question:  Dog ears: convenient necessity or evil practice?

____________________________
Her Grace is not such a heathen that she would ever dog ear a loaner or a library book. But she will leave them lying open, face-down, which some people consider just as bad.

6 comments:

Mars said...

I think they are both, I don't do it now but I used to, and break the spines of books, especially as I used to leave them open at my page wedged downwards... probably a worse way to treat books! But books have always been read by me everywhere, bed, bath, beach, there was no no-go area to read so they got pretty battered!

Now I read mostly using a kindle, for which I bought a cover immediately (with a light) and I probably look after this way better than my paper books!

Mars xx
@TrollbeadBlog from
Curling Stones for Lego People

John Frain said...

I use a bookmark, but I will add this about dog-ear people -- I love to follow in their footsteps when I get a library book. It's like looking secretly over someone's should occasionally when reading ... how did they stop on this page? There's no way I could put this book down right now! It's just one little side mystery to think about while reading.

So if you dog-ear a library book, just imagine that I'm the next in the queue to pick it up and smile to yourself as your crease that corner. Some of us appreciate the gesture!

Celia Reaves said...

Oh, I could never bend the corner. I have collections of bookmarks all over the house! Bu you're right that e-books have solved that problem, and I can use multiple bookmarks - for instance, in a murder mystery, I'll mark the description of the crime scene. Very helpful!

E.M. Goldsmith said...

Yeah, I am bad about dog-earing books, especially my favorite ones. I like quoting them so I have to mark places where great passages happen. I am trying to get better. I collect bookmarks but they never stay put. Ah well.

CynthiaMc said...

I use sticky notes as bookmarks. They don't fall out and I can put them exactly where I left off.

Julie Weathers said...

OMG No, not one of those people! My non-fiction books look like porcupines they have so many sticky notes marking reference points and they are highlighted so much they look like rainbows but nary a dog-eared page in the bunch.

I'm like Celia, I collect bookmarks. I also make them. I bought three antique children's books just for that purpose.