How Do You Treat Your Books?
Are you like Vladimir Nabokov, endlessly harassing them? Or do you let them be themselves? Do you like bookmarks? The thick paper ones they hand out at your bookstore or the fancy ones you’re gifted in a card? Some are made of gold. Or do you prefer to use the receipt? What about dog-earing? Do you fret over or indulge in spilling a drink onto its pages? Book jackets: toss immediately or preserve forever? Would you highlight lines or passages? Keep notes in the margins? Notes having nothing to do with the book at all, maybe just a phone number you needed to jot down and your book was the closest inscribable surface? How do you treat your books?