Rated YA-MA discussion

For those of you like me who still enjoy a good print book, How picky are you? Do you break spines? Are you gentle so they always look new?

I ask this because I'm picky, haha. I do not overly bend my book because I don't like creases in the spine and I regularly flip them over or put something heavy on top of them so they don't wave. I get slightly upset when the cover gets bent on accident.

This is on my mind because last night my copy of got a little wet. It's not bad, just like 6 or so pages landed in a small puddle in my kitchen. It's barely noticable, except to me. When the book is closed and you look at the pages from the side you can see where they wave and the book no longer lays flat. It's totally driving me inSANE... I needed somewhere to share it.

I'm exactly the same way. I have taken my flat iron to straighten pages out that were waved from water. I NEVER crease a spine. I can not and will not hurt my books. :)

In the rare case that I own a brand new print book, I don't crack the spine and I'm very careful not to bend pages or get them wet. My copy of Shadowfever had gotten bent a little in my backpack, so I shoved it under a storage bin over night to flatten it back out.

I take the dust jacket off of hardcovers before I start reading them so I don't rip or bend those either.

Well, actually, I'm still very careful with used books and library books that have seen better days, too. It makes me a little sad to see a book that wasn't properly cared for.

Kristina, how do you flat iron the pages? Do you keep the heat on low? I'm honestly tempted to try it.

Angie, that's how I am too. except I keep my covers on the books, only because they stay in better condition for me that way. When I take them off it always seems like something happens to them and they get bent or folded.

Oh I'm picky, I like good condition books, I'll buy use and try to make sure they are in good condition. I cringe with folded pages. My mom sprinkled water on my copy of The Hunger Games and didn't understand why I was anxious about it...

When I was younger I dog eared pages, but now as I get older the idea just drives me insane. Me and my daughter both have an array of bookmarks.

FYI paper flattens easily if you slightly dampen it and weigh it down with something flat.

Wendy, my dust jackets do not leave my bookshelf. Before I even step away from the shelf, I have it safely in place.

That is something that bothers me as well. When I do buy print I try to find them second hand first, but they have to be like new for me to get them. I hate that at Half Price they mark all their books with a permanent marker.

Permanent marker is blasphemy! So is not easily removable stickers. I always test the sticker before I buy the book. So I guess that would make me picky as well, lol. I also agree, I hate dogeared pages! I love bookmarks but tend to lose them and end up using random pieces of paper I can find or tear off something I don't care about!

I do that too. Especially since I joined Goodreads because I've gotten fond of quotes from books. So if it's print, I'll have all these ripped piece of paper sticking out of my book along with a bookmark.

I hate magic marker on books too! When our Barnes & Noble closed down I got the discount books but hated the magic marker on the back through the barcode. The cool thing is that I work for a publishing fulfillment warehouse. And because we get a lot of returns with marker we know how to clean that off books, hahaha. Just takes a little bit of WD40.

I hate stickers too. The first thing I do is try to peel them off. For the hard ones, I use another tool at work. We have razerblade sticker removers. So I keep one at my desk and on my down time will use them to remove stickers off my own personal books.

I'm pretty sure it's the publishers marking overstock with black marker before they sell them at a discount to stores for them to sell as bargain books. At least, every book I've ever seen on a bargain rack has the black mark on it. I don't really care about that, some of them only have a spot of it. I also don't mind writing in the books, underlining or notes in the margins, etc. But I cannot abide dogeared pages or cracked spines. When I was little, I used to put scotch tape on the ends of all my paperbacks so they wouldn't come apart. Now I only buy hardcover or ebooks when possible. Paperbacks are too delicate for my poor sensitivities to handle.

That's the only time we've seen black marker. B&N did it so you couldn't go return them somewhere else.

Scotch tape is a good idea. I used to have book covers, or make book covers.

I still buy a lot of paperbacks. But there are levels. Like if I know I'll reread and reread a book, I'll spend the extra money for a hardcover.

Actually, my most favorite series of all time I have in hardcover and in paperback. I reread the paperbacks and don't touch the hardcover because I don't want them to get frayed.

You only need two tools to fix anything WD40 and duct tape. If it moves and isn't supposed to, use duct tape. If it doesn't move and it's supposed to use WD40.
I love that quote! Thanks for the tip! I've been trying to buy more hardcovers as well.

Haha. That is good, Stacie.

I mainly by HC and ebooks. However...Georgina Kincaid was ONLY released in Trade PAPERBACK. Thankfully I got the series first in audio...so I don't have to hurt them by rereading. Plus they are signed so they have to sit pretty on my shelf. :D Also there are several other series that I adore but they are ONLY released in paperback and I stare at them appalled. Those get purchased as ebook or audio usually. Why? BECAUSE PAPERBACK ARE SERIOUSLY SISSY. I hate when the corners are easy to jack up.

Now on to the seriously OCD things about my books. You break my books spine...I break your spine. You dog ear my books pages, well I can't very well dog ear you very well so I will find something that is equally fitting as punishment! I take my dust jackets off prior to reading, and they promptly go on my book shelf in a safe spot. I cannot stand my dust jackets getting all jacked up, wrinkled...bent...ripped...and the likes. It makes me nuts, can't have it happen. I think my eyes about bled at the thought of someone...even myself writing or highlighting in my books...Jenny...HOW CAN YOU STAND IT?! I've been weird like this since childhood. My books, hell even magazines had to not be bent or abused. It only gets worse the older I get. Another thing...all my books have to be the same type...ebook, hardcover, paperback, audio... format must match omg! Oh and I dust my books at least once a week. They are not allowed to be dusty, dusty is BAD BUSINESS. O_O

The boyfriend...T's books make me cry. He likes paperbacks and cracks the spines and rolls them up and they just look battered and abused. He says they look loved. I tell him they look like hell and unloved. He argues that they look like they've been read and cherished. What it boils down to is I tell him he is full of shit and I may consider using them as kindling to put them out of their misery! :P

Hummmm...I getting that you feel VERY strongly on this subject, Hillary. Hahaha

I have no idea what you are talking about...

I get the book looking cherished, my copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone looks like that, but I really want to buy new hardcovers to match the last four books. (When I was geeking out and attending the midnight book releases! Yay butterbeer!) But there is so little money and so many books. My to buy list is getting longer and longer! I need to win the lottery.

Hillary wrote: "I think my eyes about bled at the thought of someone...even myself writing or highlighting in my books...Jenny...HOW CAN YOU STAND IT?!"

I used to hate it too. But I had a teacher in highschool who MADE us do it. I was appalled. I couldn't, I said. I won't!
DO IT! he said. And I glared at him while I did it. And then in college I was super lazy about carrying paper and laptop because it was SO FAR from the Kirby Smith lot to CEBA and the less in my bag the better. And so the habit coalesced into something I saw as a good idea. One of my professors said that if we didn't have notes all over our books then we weren't reading them properly for her class. Then I got to the upper level courses and had to write long and detailed criticisms and found that last professor was probably right, and I HAD to underline and write notes in the margins if I wanted to graduate.
I also enjoy it when I reread something and find some little note I left in there because sometimes I agree with myself and think how smart I am and sometimes I am like WTF I'm such a moron. Luckily I can now do most of that on my Kindle. I love that I can write crap all over my book without jacking it up.

I don't write or highlight in any of my books at all, with the exception of that series I have in hardcover and paperback. I'll make notes or highlight favorite parts in that one because I have the hardcover to keep nice.

As far as the dust jackets, I used to try to take them off but it didn't matter where I put them they always got messed up. If i put them on top of my book shelf my cat would knock them off. If they went between books on my shelf they'd get crushed and get a weird crinkle in the spine area of the cover. I'm so gentle with books as I read them that my dustjackets still look perfect when I'm done, so it's just better for me.

I also get the whole 'cherished' book thing. I have some books that I've had since I was a young teenager/child that I still read at least once a year now as an adult. Those books look worn, but we're talking I've had them for 15+ years and have read them so many times that they are truly 'well loved' books. I don't think it counts when you crack the spine or roll the book the first time you read them, hahaha. I wouldn't call that 'well loved', I'd call it literature abuse.

Wendy F wrote: "Kristina, how do you flat iron the pages? Do you keep the heat on low? I'm honestly tempted to try it.

Angie, that's how I am too. except I keep my covers on the books, only because they stay i..."

I had my iron on a higher setting and worked the pages from the spine outward, moving at a medium to fast speed going over it a few times. It helped a lot.

Jenny wrote: "Hillary wrote: "I also enjoy it when I reread something and find some little note I left in there because sometimes I agree with myself and think how smart I am and sometimes I am like WTF I'm such a moron ..."

Hahaha...That is why I stopped keeping a journal. Most of the time I was thinking I was a moron.

I agree with all of the above! I have trouble with library books when I find dog-eared pages. I have even more trouble when I find pizza and chocolate in said library books. YUCK!

I have an array of bookmarks, and cannot stand to make a crease in the book itself.

My husband splashed some water on a book I had and I had a heart attack (it felt that way at least) and he could not understand why! Funny how we are huh? :)

I used to dog-ear paperbacks back in the day when paperbacks were not so pretty as they are now. These days, the books are way too pretty to damage!

Haha when I was teenager and the Harry Potter books were still coming out, every time I got the new one I'd treat it like my baby. If I took it anywhere I'd put it in a grocery bag so nothing would get on it!

Now, a lot of the books I get are used so they are already pretty beat up. However when I do get brand new books, I freak out if anything happens to them. (I was always afraid when lending my 13 year old niece my books.)

A few months ago, when I had my sister and her kids living with me, her year old son got to one of my HP books. It was already 10 years old so it had some wear and tear, but he grabbed the jacket and now there's a big chunk out of it. It makes me sad :(

katy that would make me cring!!!

Oh man, I would be so upset! My husband gets angry because I'm so fickle I'm constantly rebuying books for reasons like that.

I want my nephews to get into the Harry Potter world but they are only 15 months, so I have to wait awhile, lol. And when they are old enough I think I'm going to read the books to them, I don't know if I could give up my copies without having a backup.

I just wanted to say for those of you who HATE stickers... I have the perfect solution for you! My dad has a library in his home with over 6000 books and he hates having the stickers on them too, so what we do is use a tine bit of lighter fluid on them. Just put like a couple or so drops on the sticker and it loosens all the sticky stuff and usually you will be able to easily slide a butter knife under the sticker. On most you don't even have to do that they just will wipe right off. Just make sure to wipe it with a rag. When the fluid dries you cant even tell that it was there. Hope this helps. =] ((The really sticky stickers are a bit harder to get off though.))

Nice tip!

Thanks!

I used to be very loving with my books and took quite a bit of care of them,always knowing just where each book is kept in the house. It is just recently that I have started giving away books for others to read as isn't that the point of sharing good books? I do go to used book stores and only put something back on the shelf if it is musty or the cover is sticky.

Andria wrote: "I used to be very loving with my books and took quite a bit of care of them,always knowing just where each book is kept in the house. It is just recently that I have started giving away books for ..."

I wonder if I have picky used book stores in my area. The used books stores I am familiar with won't accept books that are mildewy, or have sticky covers. Mildew spreads quickly to "uninfected" books, and sticky covers can end up sticking to and damaging the covers of neighboring books. One store won't even accept books that smell of cigarette smoke, because their customers won't buy them!