To break the spines of paperback books and treat them like they're nothing?

[ChasTittyBeltUp]

I remember someone telling me that the first thing to do to a paprback is break it's spine to make it easier to read. I also fold corners down.

I think a paperback is sort of disposable...can be recycled...unless it's a chershed gift or signed etc.

DH thinks I am very wrong to do this and he is (imo) ridiculously and annoyingly precious about them. He sits with them open three quarters so he doesn't damage them and all his look new.

AIBU?

No Kindles here. We like books.

Nooooooo - I can't believe how many spine breakers/corner turn downers there are out there. I was expecting your abhorrent ways to be roundly condemned

WitchofEndor, plastic covers! Anathema!
I need to break them, touch them and smell the ink.
Am with you OP.

YANBU - and I'm so happy to find I'm not the only spine breaker, page folder out there.

I have a large collection of paperback books, and they look well read (well loved). Nothing like breaking in a new book, and devoring it in one go.

If you want to buy your own books and do this sort of thing, I will disapprove quietly. But for the love of fuck I wish people would stop doing this to library books which then have to be discarded as no-one else will read them in that condition, and don't teach your kids to do it as they will ruin every book they touch in the library.

People do this to books deliberately?

YABU. I agree with your DH. All books should be treated with respect and pale backs are not cheap anymore. I pass some of my books on to other people or give them to charity shops. Even those I keep I want to keep in a good condition as possible. I know books sometimes get spoiled accidentally but to do it on purpose is wrong.

My books are well dog-eared.

I feel sorry for the virginal ones still on the shelf.

I'm not a great spine breaker and I don't fold page corners, but I do read in the bath and with meals, so my books end up mangled.

I have books with broken spines: after about twenty reads (in the bath) it can't be helped. But the books I have read 10 times look neater than the books most people have read the once. I love books, and hate seeing them dog-eared!

DH is like this - he is soooo paranoid about his books. Whenever I have read one of his books, he inspects the spine minutely for any evidence of a wrinkle. If he finds one, I get the most ferocious lecture. Then he moans and groans and starts muttering about getting a new copy. Once I had a cut on my finger that split open when I was reading one of his books and I got a tiny splash of blood on one page. Still haven't lived that one down, and it must have been 15 years ago!

Thank Heavens for the Kindle, that's all I can say! :)

YABU - trashing books just because they're inexpensive paperbacks is uncivilised behaviour. Though what is intriguing me on this thread is how many people seem to only read a book once before sending it to a charity shop or giving it away - maybe that's the difference between the two approaches? I buy books to keep them, and I'm a fanatical re-reader, which is why our flat looks like a badly-run public library, but I can imagine your whole attitude to a book as an object would be different if it only exists for you during a single read...?

Aaargh

Would you do that to a child to show how well loved it was? SO pleased I have my kindle so my book related issues don't rear up too often :)

I never break the spines but I do fold the corners down.

My friends were on holiday once and had read all the books they had taken with them except one. They actually tore it in half so one could start the book before the other had finished it.

Bastards.

I have my kindle now so my only obsession is whether the right hand page turner button is more 'clicky' than the left

Fair enough about taking care of library books MsWeather, as they are shared property. This is precisely why I have a huge collection of books at home - I love to love my books (folded corners, notations, fully open spine) so I just buy them and keep them. And re-read them.

As for academic books, if it's a book that I don't want to own - and there are quite a few - I don't normally treat these like my own. I usually just make photocopies of the chapters I need (and on these I notate to my heart's content!) In the case of the above-mentioned library book, I'm going to keep the one I have treated like the gorgeous lover it is and replace it with a new copy. The institution librarian was very nice about it and found it amusing that I fell so deeply in love with this obscure academic book that apparently no one else wants to read.

Aren't you Kindle users terribly afraid you'll drop it in the bathtub?

I always try and keep paperback books looking good. So I am with your DH on this one.

LauraIngallsPalmer, DH would not DREAM of taking his Kindle or any other book into the bathroom with all that steam and water everywhere! The very idea... get the smelling salts, quickly!

I wouldn't take one of his books into the bathroom, but I do take mine in. But I am much, much more careful about touching them with wet hands than I used to be!

pages stained with the butter drips from crumpets :)

I like old books. There were some in the local libary from the 50s. I like them :)

Yes Kindle does not enter the bathroom but neither did books because of all the steam.

Magazines are for baths.

I don't get the chance to read in the bath. You can get waterproof bag things for them though.

Tbh, I'm turned off by Kindles and other e-readers. They seem so cold and impersonal.

Nagoo I bet they all smell lovely!

Kindles have a really touchy-feely back. I like to stroke mine whilst reading.

I thought I'd be turned off by the kindle but in fact it has released me from all my looking after book ishoos :)

None of you are getting anywhere near any of my books!

Except Chippingin and the small minority of obsessive book-respecters on this thread.