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

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Did he break the spine deliberately, just to yank your chain?

[thefon.livejournal.com]

Burn in hell, book blasphemer.

That gives me another idea!

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Readin's easy, Readin's free
Library ticket on a one-way ride
Asking nothing, leave me be
Taking everything in my stride
Dont need bookmarks, no dustcovers
Aint nothing I would rather do
Turnin' pages, bend them back
Nobosy's gonna be there too

I'm in the library to Hell
Library to Hell
Library to Hell

I can do this all day, you know.*

*^{Actually I can't, as we've got the auditors in, but you know what I mean.}

[song-of-copper.livejournal.com]

My mum worked in publishing and is very picky about books - there's a right and wrong way to turn those pages, you know! (Always from the edge, apparently...) :-D

At least the trail of destruction you wreak so eagerly shows that you have actually opened your books and - gosh! - possibly even read them. Better that than a whole wall of shelves covered in pristine, unopened Booker prize shortlisted tomes. ;-)

[(Anonymous)]

There's a story about a man trying to impress Dr Johnson who showed off his extensive library saying, "you know, Dr Johnson, I regard my books as my friends," whereupon Johnson pulled out a pristine volume & opened it, remarking, "I am pleased to see, Sir, that you do not cut your friends."
Moral: don't mess with Dr Johnson

H

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I have at least one unfinshed Booker prize winners, but that's because they turned out to be unreadable and so I gave up on them.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Heathen!

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I laugh at your non-rock and roll reading!

[song-of-copper.livejournal.com]

Don't mess with Dr Johnson... I wouldn't dare. Let's leave that duty to Mr Blackadder. ^_^

[song-of-copper.livejournal.com]

Well indeed - at least you gave 'em a go. Better than casually leaving them on your shelf or coffee table in an effort to appear well read. :-)

[gnommi.livejournal.com]

Books are for using, for learning from, for enjoying...

I'd get upset if a rare and irreplaceable tome got defaced to the point that precludes anyone else from doing that after you.

But general ten-a-penny pulp-type books, do what you want! Get the most out of them. Making notes in the margin will increase the value if you ever get famous anyway. I have books that are falling apart at the seams because they have been read so much, and that mauled character is part of the appeal after a while. You can really see the love...

Er now that makes me think about porn >_> argh don't wanna see the love there...

Some books are meant to be admired though, dog-eared coffee-table books aren't for mauling!

[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.

[mrmmarc.livejournal.com]

A book covered in notes, pages buffed, dog eared and dirty...

Its a sign of a well loved book!
The BOOK is not the sacred thing.

The sacred thing are the words. The book is merely the method to bring the words to you.

I write on books, annotate books, crease pages endlessly...

And I utterly utterly UTTERLY adore books.

Suffice to say there are two types of book lovers in this world...
Those who are VERY middle class and prim- who like to have tea with their books and get excited at the occsional glimpse of book ankle...

And those of us who get the book down on the floor and have a hand up its skirt within an hour. We are the ones who books remember- who leave our marks on the book as they leave their make upon us.

Polite book lovers- look to your bookcases- your books, your novels, you hardbacks and your references books- they DO like you... they DO... but they secretly long for owners like us!

:)

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for some of those mental images, little buddy.

[(Anonymous)]

I keep forgetting that all books secetly want to be slapped about.