My pet peeve - a dog ear

One of my pet peeves is the dog-earing of books! And yes, underlining and highlighting passages, scribbling in the margins and crumpling dustcovers! When I get a new book, I spend several minutes caressing it, gazing lovingly upon it, and eventually hugging it to my chest in unabashed glee and just the thought that someone could desecrate it by folding pages or scribbling in it has driven me crazy for years.

Why would one want to dog-ear a book? I know it's meant to mark a section or phrase in a book that one finds to be important or of personal meaning, but why harm the page? There are so many innovative ideas of marking a place or keeping your place when you stop reading for a while. This shops are full of beautiful book markers. Anything from metal markers with beautiful dangling silver charms to fabric corner bookmarks that you slip over the corner to plasticized cardstock with magnets.

 

Narrow sheet of paper with inspirational words and laminated for durability

And the sky's the limit if you use your imagination for making your own bookmarks. There's so much you can do, from tearing a piece of notepaper to place at the page (and you can scribble on it!), crochet something, cut out magazine pictures or creating something something unique like inspirational words on a long narrow piece of paper and laminating it. I'm always making some like the one above and below, not only is it sturdy but it also gives me a daily dose of some really inspirational thoughts.

I think books are sacred. Well, you know, not really sacred - The intrinsic worth of a book belongs to its content. Most books aren’t sacred in and of themselves. A book is only sacred for what you get out of it. And then, of course, there is the beautiful printing. Anything in printed form can highly excite me, from a magazine to a lady's journal to beautiful greeting cards and, of course, books. Hard cover books, with or without a dust jacket - they feel so firm and heavy in your hands...

But now, here's the thing. I also have trouble throwing away books. Even 'rubbish' ones like cheap soft covers or promotional or advertising booklets. However, those I have found a use for! Those destined for the dustbin, I now keep on a special shelf and often use them for sketching and painting in, like the image above - the words behind the painting lends a certain charm and these little books can become artwork in themselves.

However, whether you dog-ear or not, love your books. Allow them to look loved by adorning them with beautiful silver charms and always cherish them, not for what they are, but for what they say.

 Image credit

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