:booking:
What kind of care do you take of your books? Let’s review, shall we?
1. Are you careful with the spines? Or do you crack your books open to make them lay flat?
2. Do you use bookmarks? Or do you dog-ear the corners? If you do use bookmarks, do you use those fashionable metal ones? Or paper?
3. Do you write in your books? Ever? If you do, do you make small marks, or write in as much blank space as you can find? Pen or pencil? Highlighter? Your name on the front page?
4. Do you toss your books on the floor? Into bookbags? Or do you treat them tenderly, with respect?
5. Do you ever lay your book face-down, to save your place?
6. Um–water? Do you bathe with your books? Hold them with wet hands? Read out in the rain? Anything of that sort?
7. Are your books lined up on a bookshelf? Or crammed in any which way? Stacked on the floor?
8. Do you make a distinction–as regards book care–between hardcovers and paperbacks?
9. And, to recap? Naturally, you love all of your books, but how, exactly? Are your books loved in the battered way of a well-loved teddy bear, or like a cherished photo album or item of clothing that’s used, appreciated, but carefully cared for?
10. Any additional comments?

1. Depends on the book. Cookbooks get cracked to lay flat, as do books with pictures that go all the way into the bonding. In general, though I tend to take care of book spines, becasue I like to re-read, and if you are too rough, pages start falling out.
2. Bookmarks, both kins, and often just a slip of paper.
3. I do write in my Bible, where ever and as much as I need to. I have a couple in current use, both with handwritten notes. I was well into my adulthood before I would “deface” my Bible by marking in it. My mother taught me *never* to write in my Bible. I was over thirty before I said, “Self this is your study manual for life, and you have a final exam to prepare for. If you wrote in college textbooks and that helped you prepare for tests that were basically insignificant, you can write in this Bible.” Interestingly enough, it was at roughly that point that I realized my faith was finally my own, and not just a carry-over from my childhood.

I don’t write much in other books, except the books I use teaching my children, I jot dates and such in those so I know where we are.

4. I will toss a book in a bookbag, definitely. Also in a purse.
5. I generally don’t lay them face down completely, but I do lay them so that part of the book is on a table, and part is hanging off.
6. Bathe? As if I even have time to read in the tub.
7. Yes, yes, and yes.
8. Not so much.
9. Teddy bear, probably, although I do have a few that are cherished.
10. Isn’t this long enough already?