One of the more unusual juxtapositions of ideas I've had lately, and that's saying something.

[davywavy]

In a post yesterday, daegaer mentioned that she cannot stand to see books ill-treated, and when I replied that I'm an inveterate ill-treater of books she had a fit of the vapours and needed the stays of her corsetry loosened.
It's true. My library is fairly substantial and it's a rare book that I own which doesn't at least have page corners turned over to mark off interesting ideas or quotes. Sometimes I annotate the margins and I mark my place in books by putting them open, face down, which breaks the spines.
Some people, I know, go into conniptions at this sort of behaviour.

However, as I've been thinking about AC/DC far too much lately, this seems to have inspired me to song:

(To the tune of 'Heatseeker' by Angus & Brian. Apologies as usual).

Getting ready to read
Getting set to peruse
I'm gonna turn me a page
I'm gonna learn me some views
I gotta keep those pages turning
I gotta keep those words retained
I gotta keep those ideas burning
I wanna see some things explained!
And I'm a spinebreaker, using books like tools
And I'm a spinebreaker, and I, I don't need no page preserver
I just turn page corners down.
Page corners down

Getting ready to learn
Getting set to construe
I'm gonna annotate text
My library books - overdue!
You gotta keep those neurons firing
You gotta use those books like tools
You gotta keep knowledge acquiring
You gotta break those lending rules!
Cause I'm a spinebreaker, underlines the text
And I'm a spinebreaker, and I, I don't need no page preserver
I just turn page corners down.
Page corners down

I wanna pick up a book
See the lines of the prose
I'm gonna take me a look
At how pentameter flows!
And I'm a spinebreaker
I gotta keep those pages turning
I gotta keep those words retained
I gotta keep those ideas burning
I wanna see some things explained!
And I'm a spinebreaker, and I don't need no page place preserver
I'll just turn page corners down.
Page corners down.



Reading. It's rock and roll.

Comments

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

*weeps into a delicate lace handkerchief at the terrible, terrible, brutishness of brutes*


(I once loaned a copy of a novel - that had gone out of print - to a friend. It was pristine when it went out. When it came back, it was mangled, the cover torn, pages turned down or torn and the spine was bent to the point pages were falling out. It was also smeared in cow shit. No more books were loaned to her and she's no longer a friend - though that admittedly had less to do with her heathenish ways with books and more to do with the fact she went mad, started stalking my mother and mocking her over the death of my father, and tried to poison her husband. . . . though I feel the book mistreatment may have been an early symptom).

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I have, in the past, returned lent books with page corners turned over to mark handy bits of text. I honestly don't see what's wrong with that.
If something is valuable or rare, I won't do even that.

I do draw the line at wiping my bottom on them, however, unless I really don't like the owner.