(no subject)

[the_rck]

Cordelia dogears pages in her books, library books, too. I've tried to break her of the habit, but she doesn't see anything wrong with it. It's not that she doesn't have bookmarks; she must have at least half a dozen nice ones, and she can get bookmarks from the school library any time. She just doesn't like bookmarks. I think that she feels they get in the way and that she doesn't like having one more thing to keep track of. I was brought up to believe that dogearing was bad, that it damaged books, so I cringe a little each time I see her do it.

Comments

[heavenscalyx]

AUGH. There are librarians who hate her. Also readers. You should hear some of the things my wife says about the students who MARK things in library books with pen or pencil. Most are unprintable.

[the_rck]

I don't know where Cordelia got this habit, either. Neither Scott nor I do it. I'm going to try again to get her to stop doing it with library books. Books she owns she can destroy if she wants to, but library books need to last.

So far, she shows no signs of wanting to write in books. I'll definitely head that one off at the pass if it turns up.

[sorcycat.livejournal.com]

Would it help to have a librarian tell her that it's inappropriate to treat books that way?

[the_rck]

It might help. She respects authority figures. I'll mention it to the school librarian.

[leorising1959.livejournal.com]

Funny thing, how people treat books. I was raised to treat them well, but the Bible was the only book we really cared about damaging (couldn't set it on the floor, either.)

I used to dogear pages when I was a kid. I stopped doing it on library books when asked by the librarian, fairly early on (3rd grade? maybe earlier.) I don't go out of my way to damage books, but if I can make it sit more comfortably on the desk or hold it in my hands better, I'll happily break bindings and curl covers.

OTOH, I have friends who treat every book, from expensive signed first editions to cheap paperbacks, like they were made of spun gold. I hate borrowing from them because I have to treat the darned things so gingerly.

One Christmas I gave a paperback Webster's dictionary to a 7-year-old boy. His dad, my old friend, started lecturing him about how he has to keep it nice and not break the bindings or dogear the corners. I told him that the darned thing cost $5.95 and he could jolly well replace it if it gets tattered. In fact, he should wish that his son's dictionary become well-worn!

Everyone's got their thing. For some folks, their thing is keeping books in like-new condition. Gods bless us all. ^_^;

[the_rck]

I don't care how she treats books that belong to her. I just want her to treat library books better than that. Library books need to last through repeated readings, and it only takes one careless reader to destroy a book and thereby rob future readers of the chance to see it at all (not all damaged books can be replaced even if the person who damaged them pays for them).

I would like her to treat the books she borrows from me a bit better than she treats her own books. She doesn't borrow too many books from me because me liking something tends to mean she won't touch it, not unless one of her friends recommends it. I've learned not even to mention that I have a copy of a particular book that she's checked out of the library or that she mentions one of her friends liking.