I hate those artsy book covers, I have the tendancy to always remove them, because they get in the way for me, and I like the simple look that books usually have under the book cover.

I don't like it when people tape them on the book, to ensure they stay on there, my school (HS) puts them on with this really sticky tape that has peices of plastic in it, looks like the tape that is used for sprained fingers.

I put my books on my bookshelves in my room, usually I am pretty protective of my books, like I don't keep them out in the sunlight or let them be put on the floor or in the trunk of my car.

I don't put my books (reading) not textbooks, in my backpack.. seems that a page always gets dinged or bent or something.

How do you take care of your books?

One time, I left mine on my nightstand, and I put my glass of water next to it, I accidentally kicked my glass of water over, and it got on the book, I immediately picked up the book to dry it off, only a few pages are wavy, on the bottom near the bind now.

I have two medium-sized bookcases in my wardrobes and I'm pretty anal about keeping the books on them in really good condition as I have a lot of valuable first editions (mainly art books from the Dragonlance saga printed back in the 70's) and a lot of 'Trek books that are no longer published. It's taken me nearly ten years to complete the collection.

Some of them I wrap in bubble paper for extra security; but usually I keep them out of sunlight, away from damp or bad smells and keep them clean and dusted.

i'm really really picky.
i don't let ANYBODY borrow them, and i have to put them back in the same spot on my bookshelf. i rarely put them in bags, unless it's my totebag and it's not stuffed, so it'll be in the front, protected, not around anything. i also refuse to bend the pages. if i'm going somewhere and i have to put my book in something, i always put it in a walmart bag and wrap the bag around it really good to make sure it'll stay safe. i also try to buy hardcovers as much as possible.

I used to use the cloth slip covers but now I just put them on my book shelf when I'm not using them & when I am going somewhere with it they're in my tote bag...I usually only buy hardback books; it's a lot easier to take care of

I think you're the first person I've met who's as obsessive about personal books' condition as I am. I'm pretty much the same way, except I really try to avoid putting my book in my bag at all. I'd rather hold it in my hand to ensure it doesn't get damaged. I keep everything on my two bookshelves. All my books, magazines, and manga are in perfect (or near it) condition.

I'm so protective of my books...I will only lend them to my 4 best friends, and only after making them SWEAR to keep them safe.

I don't mind the hardcover paper cover thingies so much (they're pretty!) but if I try reading with them, it always starts coming off or getting wrinkly from my damp hands. So I take them off when I'm actually reading the book.

As for paperbacks, I try my hardest not to open the book too big, and if the book doesn't close the way it should, I keep it under a stack of textbooks for like a week. I HATE RUINED BOOKS!!!

I try not to transport my books, and if I have to, I keep them wrapped tightly in a plastic bag.

ahhh! i always thought i was just weird.
yeah, i would also rather carry my books, but every now and then i might have a few school books or a project or something to carry so i make sure there's as little crap in my bag as possible and put my sketchpad between the book and everything else, and it goes right in the front where i know it's safe. mom always laughs at me. :[

Haha, Becka, so did I. But it seems like there are a lot of people here who are the same way. I also put important books in the very front of my bag so nothing else can squish or bend it. My friends gave up asking me to borrow my books a long time ago. I feel kind of bad about it, but I'm too pseudo-OCD about this kind of thing. :X

i keep my books on the second shelf of my desk. i usually keep all my books there so i don't even go crazy looking for them. i take really good care of them just because i really like them. lol. text books: i keep them in my bottom cabinet. i take care of those too because i don't want to mess them up and then have to pay for them AND i don't want to lose them and then have to pay for them. lol.

but i let people borrow them. i tell them to take care of it, lol. unless i don't want it, i just give it to them for keeps. i don't think i've ever lent someone a book and then got it back in the worse condition. thank god.

I keep them all on my bookshelves. I hate putting them in backpacks, etc. I really try to take care of them. I don`t let people borrow my books, either.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when there's a crease in the spine in paperback books. It pisses me off.
I know. I`m weird. I try really hard to prevent that, even.

I have a bookshelf next to my bed that I keep all but my books on wicca and my school books on.

Me too. My best friend would ask me how I could read my books properly if I never bent them open far enough to wrinkle the spine. Haha.

^ I literally open my books up at a 45 degree angle sometimes. Although, now I just bend back the cover as opposed to the spine. A curved book cover is easy to mend with a little time, but you can never revive a creased spine!

ohmygod. i used to be SO protective over my books when from elementary to most of high school. i wouldn't let anyone borrow them, not even my own brother sometimes!

i'm a lot better now, but i sometimes remove the cover before lending them out. i just love having my books in good condition :)

Here's what you could do for paperback books, you can buy the book, then check out the same one at the library, then your copy will always be perfect. :)

I curve the cover a bit to read the words printed near the spine, then use heavier books to put on top if I want to make the cover flat again. Or I just put it between other books on my shelf and the cover flattens that way.

i have a shelf that i put them in. that's all.

well keeping them off up the floor is a good thing too

Ps. I'm because I haven't seen you on these forums in a couple of years. Either you haven't been on, or I haven't been seeing you. I recognized your username though. lol

i have books that are my age and still in really good condition. it's really not that hard.

Ew, then I have to read the smelly version of the book! No thanks. I think I would be more likely to buy two copies of the same book, hahaha.

^hahaha, i agree.
I just try to read my paperbacks really carefully.

LMAO.

I'm the exact opposite of all of you.

I love when I'm reading a book and it's like worn and worked in. Of course, my books are falling apart sometimes but I don't like that. I read a lot near a window with the sun and prop up my feet. It just isn't relaxing if my book has to be perfect or if it's too new. I like when the cover gets soft and the pages crinkle from being a page-turner.

same here. i mean i have a book shelf where i keep all my books, but when it comes time to sitting and reading i like to be comfortable; somehow it makes me enjoy a book more. i'm not anal about keeping my books in perfect condition.

Use a book shelf and try not to be rough with them.

I suck suck suck suck at keeping my books in "good" condition. I can't even keep our english reading books intact even if we're only reading it for a few months. I nearly destroyed my poor Julius Caesar book when we had to read it because of all the rain.

A worn book has more personality than a dozen crisp ones.

Textbooks wise, they're usually in good, but not spanking new conditions when the semester's over. I take care of them by refusing to highlight or write notes in them (because I just don't that whoever buys my books after I sell them back to the bookstor would appreciate having florescent patches and pen and pencil marks all over--I personally find those to be annoying when I'm buying used books), and by trying my best to not get the pages wet, wrinkled, or folded. But accidents do happen, and few of the pages do become wavy, and have folds in them. Oh, and I try to keep the covers in good condition by not having it scratched or spilling things on them.

Non textbooks wise, I keep them in good condition by not leaving them out in the sun for too long, not spilling things on them, and avoid bending the pages.

With all that said, I'm not too anal about the state of my books--as long as it's functional, and it's not falling apart, it's fine. I don't mind a few bent or folded pages, creases in the spine or the odd wavy pages in between. Books are meant to be read and used, not meant to stay forever brand new in their store brought pristine conditions.

I'm not too good with looking after my books. I tend to buy paperbacks, as a lot of hardbacks dont actually fit on my bookshelf as it's so small. The harrypotter books are probably the biggest i can fit in hardback, maybe a few centimetres taller, i don't know. But i'm trying! A lot of my tend to get ruined down the spine, obviously from when you've been reading them. But that's just normal isn't it? There wont be very many methods of preventing that!

^

1) Open and read books at a 45 degree angle.
2) Only bend back the cover, not the spine.

I usually do #2, because I can read it easily and keep it in good condition.

As for worn books having more personality...what the f**k? Sorry, but if you have to express your personality via the condition of YOUR BOOKS, then you need to get out more. I keep my books in good condition so I can prolong the life of them in order to get the maximum number of reads out of them.

No, no, no, not my personality. I didn't say that I live vicariously through the condition of my libarary; the book itself to me has more personality, its own personality. I suppose it's lovely that people care for their books so much that they find it necessarily to keep every page unfolded, the cover free of scratches, et cetera, but I like folding open one that's been places. That isn't pristine, that wears its history on its pages. I like buying used books and seeing the creases left from where people have dog-eared them. I like it when people underline their favorite passages, or even just remnants of English annotations in hysterically yellow or orange highlighter. I bought "April Morning" by Howard Fast the other day, and it has the name "Eric" on the side, and a small little flip comic on the first few pages. It injects more life into the book, it gives it a past. It gives it a little something extra.

I'm not trying to influence everyone to scribble through pages with a Sharpie, and I'm not saying you should abandon your book-maintenance ways. I'm just saying that worn is the way I like my books.

I used to be very careful with my books, always dusting them off as they sat on my bookshelves for years. The Iz happened. lol I keep some of my graphic novels up so that he can't smudge them, but other than that, I've become very relaxed with books. With the Twilight hardcover books, I took the pretty covers off to keep them nice and I just cart the books around sans covers. lol How retarded, I took the protective covering off to protect the protective covering.

The only books that I take care of are those old ones that have been passed down the family line. I have some really old cookbooks from my great-great grandmother that were hand written in the 1800s. Those I take care of. There are still stains on them from her kitchen. I also have a religious book that my grandfather had to study when he came to America, so it's in English and German. Otherwise, it's just old cookbooks that I have. They're in ziploc baggies.

As for the books I buy, you know they're mine. Sometimes I scratch little notes in their margins, and dogear pages. My mom has this little desk thing by our kitchen window and whenever I was done reading a book, I would take it out of my backpack in the morning. I wouldn't have enough time to put it away so my mom would put them on the desk and they would sit in the sun. So now some of my books are a little discolored.

LOL. You're practically me! I'm exactly the same way. I won't lend by books to ANYONE. I'm afraid they'll wreck them. I just got the Complete collection of Sherlock Holmes Vol. 1 in hardcover, and I have to carry it around, because I don't want anything to happen to it in a bag or whatever. I'm pretty obsessive whn it comes to this stuff.

all my books are cramped in this green container sort of thing; it's a big...box? thats...plastic. i have this one book that i keep in good condition though; "Inkheart" that book is almost in perfect condition book right. xD




HOLY SNAP! i have like 4 math textbooks from like 1960's . DAYUMM. there are so many holes in them; the pages are ripped and answers are scribbled in it to "help future kids of the torturous teacher" .

i just had to take pics of it.