12 March 2009

Since Randy and Paul

played along, I will too:

Book Confessions Meme

1. To mark your page you: use a bookmark, bend the page corner, leave the book open face down?
Depends on the book. If I own it and it's a novel, yes I bend the page corner. I usually use stick it notes in my other books.

2. Do you lend your books?
Yes, and yes they frequently wander off. It's part of the joy of books! Lee, where IS that Gerhard book???

3. You find an interesting passage: you write in your book or NO WRITING IN BOOKS!
I scribble all through books when I own them and find something of interest. I mark it so as to be able to find it again quickly.

4. Dust jackets - leave it on or take it off.
Off.

5. Hard cover, paperback, skip it and get the audio book?
I prefer hardcover (who doesn't?), but my budget usually suggests paperback and whenever possible (if it is a fiction work) I borrow from the library.

6. Do you shelve your books by subject, author, or size and color of the book spines?
What an odd question! I suppose loosely by subject or author. But mostly I just put them anywhere. Hunting up a book is part of book fun. Color and size? People really do that???

7. Buy it or borrow it from the library later?
Library for my murder mysteries usually; but for theological works or poetry books, I buy.

8. Do you put your name on your books - scribble your name in the cover, fancy bookplate, or stamp?
Usually scribble my name in the front.

9. Most of the books you own are rare and out of print books or recent publications?
I've got a mixture -- some old ones I prize. One German copy of True Christianity by Arndt that is quite old.

10. Page edges - deckled or straight?
What does deckled mean?

11. How many books do you read at one time?
I usually have several books of non-fiction going at once. If I am reading a novel (which I used to do all the time and now quite seldom get the chance to), all else is on hold until it is finished. I like to read them in "one sitting" and it drive my wife crazy.

12. Be honest, ever tear a page from a book?
I have by accident before, but certainly not intentionally.

9 comments:

Rev. Charles Lehmann said...

I remember three years ago at the SID Convention you were reading some book that you'd borrowed and you wanted to scribble in it but felt great guilt.

I said, "Does it have writing in it already?" You said, "No." I said, "Write in it, buy a new one, and give the new one back!"

Your pencil hit the page about 1.2 seconds later. I laughed for... minutes. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Fr. Weedon,
Regarding #6, yes people do. I don't, I use your shelving style. And I do have proof, I can provide pictures!
I enjoyed your post.
Fr. Pollock
Proud bibliophile ;-)

Anonymous said...

Regarding the penultimate number, my wife cannot understand how I can be reading more than one at a time. I for my part cannot understand how a person could only read one at a time. I have always read four or five books at a time.
Fr. Benjamin

William Weedon said...

Thank you for the laugh, Pr. Lehmann. I remember it not at all, but it certainly rings true.

Fr. Ben, I'd love to see the proof, mostly because I love looking at collections of books. :) I think my wife is another one who does not understand the reading of multiple books, though she should as a reader of multiple magazines!

Anonymous said...

Question: when you mark somthing of interest in your book, how do you find that page and your mark again?

William Weedon said...

I remember what it looks like on the page and about where it is. My memory is not photographic, but it is quite close to that. A fuzzy photo, if you will.

Anonymous said...

1. If you value your books, "stick it notes" are as bad as 'dog ears'
Like scotch tape, they will leave a smudge which eventually turns brown.
Any thin piece of plain paper will do as well and treat the book better.
--the first thing I was taught by a Preservation Librarian :)

5. For many years, my chief source of books was garage sales and second hand stores. More recently, library surplus sales....

Helen

Anonymous said...

Then you had no reason to bother me when I read my books in one sitting! You should understand... yet some how I still got tortured. I still get tortured...but Dean doesn't actually understand the reading in one sitting... and don't say you didn't torture me...because you did.

William Weedon said...

Yes, Lew, but it is my JOB to torture you - being your papa and all...