Witches, Weres, and Vamps, Oh MY! discussion

I often try to avoid hardbacks, mostly because of the price.

I bought a hardback last week and while reading the book I took the dust jacket off and put it somewhere safe so it wouldn't get wrinkled, scratched or damaged in any way.

Do you have any weird book quirks?

If it's a book I intend to keep I ALWAYS take the dust jacket off so it stays nice & pretty. I also try to be careful with my paperbacks as I hate creased spines on paperbacks! It's one of the reasons I have such a problem with used paperback books!

Oh my god, I do the same thing! I thought I was the only one. A week ago I gave The Hunger Games minus the dust jacket to my mother when she asked me if I'd torn the jacket or something. When I told her I'd put it somewhere safe she gave me a weird look. She's also scared to crease the spines on my paperbacks because I never do, you should see hers all bent back with folded page corners. And she uses pen, PEN to underline passages! If I do that I use pencil and I never press down so I can rub it out and not leave a mark. Man, I'm bad. I need help!

I always leave the dustjackets on, although I'm careful with them. I want to see the pretty dustjacket instead of the plain black cover underneath. However, instead of letting my 12 and 9 year olds read my hardback Harry Potter books, I bought them their own set of paperback HP books so it's easier for them and they don't have to worry about ruining mommy's expensive hardbacks.

I don't underline or highlight text. I hate turned down corners in books to mark pages. (I use a sticky note for cookbooks to mark a page. I only turn down a corner on a notebook where I copied receipes down myself.) A pet peeve of mine is when someone puts a book down on the table open like this /\ as thats how spine creases happen. I figure that's what bookmarks are for!

Briansgirl "Master Book Sale Huntress" wrote: "I don't underline or highlight text. I hate turned down corners in books to mark pages. (I use a sticky note for cookbooks to mark a page. I only turn down a corner on a notebook where I copied receipes down myself.) ..."

Now when it comes to my cookbooks it's different. I figure a cookbook hasn't been well-loved unless it has a few food stains and stuff. When I see one like that I know it must be a good one!

My poor cookbooks are very well loved. You can tell which recipes I use the most because they have the most stains on them. It makes it easy to find my favorites at least.

I use sticky notes too if I don't have enough bookmarks for those favourite pages. I never put an open book face down, EVER! That's a crime!

I don't mind cooking stains on a cookbook as long as I can still read it.

I went to an estate sale last year and bought the ladies 3 cookbooks. They were local community fundraising cookbooks from the 50s and 60s. She has notes written next to which recipes she loved or didn't like. She had paperclips on some pages with newspaper clippings and handwritten recipes attached. I havn't gone through all of it yet. One is more loved than the other two, as it has all the extra's in it. So not only do I have historical local recipes from 40 to 50 years ago, but I have her comments so I know which ones to try first. :) I wrote the ladies name down inside the front cover of the cookbook so I'll know who passed down her treasures. I never met the lady except through what she's left behind in her cookbook.

That is a true find Briansgirl.

I loved finding it. After buying the first and looking through it briefly, I went back and bought the other two. I skipped all the actual hardcover cookbooks she had. I picked up the 3 local community cookbooks that she'd added to and commented on. Those were the treasures to me. I may have paid about $4 or $5 a piece for them.