Discussion
How I keep my Books...
So I recently saw the video on TheWordsOfAReader on Youtube, she speaks of how she keeps her books in near perfect condition. This video caught me off guard and made me think of how well I intend on keeping my books and got me thinking and curious about how you all keep yours?
How I keep mine:
- Pristine
- This is the condition I strive to keep my books in, I really love the way a clean and crisp book looks on the shelf. Equally though I love the way a used and very tattered collection looks like.
- I love the way a tattered shelf looks like because it is showing a unique state that no other book will have in the world. However I physically cannot bring myself to dogear or break my spines on my books it give me anxiety to even think about it.
- Organized
- I have a particular order I like to keep my books in for an aesthetic reason, and nothing more. I organize by color and height on occasion, with authors and series lined up together.
- Quirky
- I have many editions and size formats, all of which are segragated to their own positions on the shelf but I love the variety and style my Bookcases can have when I put in the effort to clean them up.
- In short I am very picky about how my books are kept and displayed, not to the point that I completely obsess over it though. The idea of having a great collection makes me extremely happy however it sometimes hinders how I read large paperback books.
Questions:
- What condition do you keep your books in?
- Why do you keep them this way, does the wear add to the "charm" for your shelves?
- Do you tend to break the spines and bend the pages, or do you buy them very used?
Please respond to these questions in the comments box bellow, I would love to know about how you keep your books...
Happy Reading :)
I'm the person who will dig through every copy on the shelf to find the best-looking book. Actually, last week I special-ordered a new copy of Skylighter in because every copy had corner damage or streakiness on the back. I went through, like, 50 or 60 copies of Glass Sword to get a decent one and STILL had back damage recently for a signing...that foil is so unforgiving!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm OCD, so I like my books to be pretty. When and if I loan them to people, I only loan out hardcovers, and I ALWAYS removed the dust jackets first. I remove them when *I* read them, let alone someone else!!! If I'm going to dig through the shelf looking for the best copy to buy, I'm going to keep it looking good!!!
I try to keep my authors/series together, but I also have "genre" shelves. Fairy tale shelf, mythology shelf, fantasy shelf, adult fantasy shelf, favorite fantasy shelf, chick lit shelf, contemporary shelf, etc. On smaller bookcases, some authors such as Jodi Picoult, Diane Chamberlain, Tamora Pierce, Terry Goodkind, Shannon Hale, Donna Jo Napoli, etc., take up a shelf of their own!
And THEN you have authors who split genres such as Jennifer L. Armentrout. I WAS shelving her in mythology...and now she has so many sub-genres, so her books are split up...which annoys my OCD, but I'm out of bookcases to give her a shelf of her own!!
Hey Bonnie!
ReplyDeleteI am the exact same way, I will get two copies of a book just to save the spine and cover of one from being ruined :) I also love reading from paperbacks but I am too particular about how my books look to keep that paperback that I read. I know, I know this is completely vain but it is the odd and very quirky way I interact with my books :)
Hope you read some great books this weekend!
Wil