Rev. Paul T. McCain, over at Cyberbrethren, posted this meme today. Then he had the temerity to say, “If you’re reading this, you’re tagged.” I’d object strongly to the highhandedness of such naked link-seeking, except that it saves me the trouble of coming up with an idea for tonight’s post. So without further ado…
Book Confessions Meme
1. To mark your page you: use a bookmark, bend the page corner, leave the book open face down?
I use a bookmark. Bookmarks can take many different forms, of course—from a Post-It Note to a discarded envelope to one of the remaining old orange things I got printed up to promote Erling’s Word long, long ago. Currently I use mostly the yellow ones given away by a local used book store, now sadly gone.
2. Do you lend your books?
Fortunately I have almost no friends, which reduces this problem considerably.
3. You find an interesting passage: you write in your book or NO WRITING IN BOOKS!
Yeah, I write in books. It would take a remarkable passage to get me to take the trouble to note anything in a fiction book, but books read for research get marked up a lot.
4. Dust jackets – leave it on or take it off.
Leave ‘em on. They’re there for a reason. In a related matter, I have a wonderful gift for reading paperbacks without breaking their spines. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
5. Hard cover, paperback, skip it and get the audio book?
Mostly paperback, because I’m poor. I’ve never bought an audio book.
6. Do you shelve your books by subject, author, or size and color of the book spines?
By subject. Is there another way? I knew a pastor once who used to tease his wife about how, when they were first married, she “helpfully” organized his books—by height.
7. Buy it or borrow it from the library later?
I buy, but mostly at Half Price Books. I’d like to use the library more, but my local branch is small, and I’ve had bad experience with interlibrary loans.
8. Do you put your name on your books – scribble your name in the cover, fancy bookplate, or stamp?
I have one of those embossing stamps, which I use on hardcover books if I remember to do it.
9. Most of the books you own are rare and out of print books or recent publications?
Mostly recent. My old books are generally just that—plain old. Many of them are in bad shape from the period I spent living in a damp basement.
10. Page edges – deckled or straight?
It’s not something I get exercised over, but I prefer straight. Deckled sheds dandruffy little particles.
11. How many books do you read at one time?
I have a one track mind.
12. Be honest, ever tear a page from a book?
Not that I recall. But then I’ve never been stranded in a blizzard and desperate for kindling.
You, Phil?
Shall I answer in the comments or make a new post?
Do as you like, sirrah. It’s your blog, after all.
Have you managed to read the old red-and-white edition of Giertz’s The Hammer of God without breaking the spine or losing pages? If so, I’m truly impressed.
Funny you should ask. My copy is actually bound in that tubular plastic stuff where every page has square holes (there must be a name for it). How such an edition came to be, I have no idea. People probably complained about the spines breaking.
Spiral binding is the name.
Yeah, but spiral binding also describes the metal stuff. The plastic kind must have its own name.
Not that I know of. When we talked to our printer about it for a booklet CBMC printed several months ago, he called it better spiral binding–I think. Are you talking about that cheap plastic you can unroll yourself? The thin, flat stuff?
If I go to the store and buy a “student” notebook with the wire binding, it always says it’s spiral bound. So that’s what I think of as spiral binding.
It’s probably different in the south.
Well, I could be wrong, but I believe spiral binding comes in different forms–metal, plastic, comb (which is the cheap kind I mentioned). Note this website
Plastic comb. That was what I was thinking of. Maybe it is a kind of spiral binding, but it doesn’t really spiral when you think about it, does it?
You’re right. It doesn’t spiral really.