Thursday, August 30, 2007

The Handling of Books

Patrick T. Reardon wrote an insightful article about the practice of dog-earing, highlighting, and writing in books. Have faced some of the same trials and ultimate concerns over the sanctity of bound material, I understand his quirky points--even if that makes me quirky too. I once stopped reading a book because it fell off of the bedside table and the cover creased.

1 comment:

Stejahen said...

It is interesting to see our beloved Lewis's take on the subject:

"To enjoy a book thoroughly I find I have to treat it as a sort of hobby and set about it seriously. I begin by making a map on one of the two end leafs: then I put in a genealogical tree or two. Then I put a running headline at the top of the page: finally I index at the the end all the passages I've underlined. I often wonder why so few people make a hobby of their reading in this way" -C.S. Lewis in They Stand Together

This would no doubt abhore most bibliophiles, but it would be very interesting to see his commentary on books.

I personally don't write in by books, but I do dog-ear extensively, so that the more engaging a book is the more pages are dog-eared.