My Books and Me

I love books! I have loved them since I was a little girl. When I was growing up my family didn't have a lot of money, so I didn't own very many books. But the books I did own were precious to me. I treated them with respect and I cared for them much better than I did my toys.

My granny always told me to never, ever dog-ear the pages of a book and this is something I adhered strongly to. When I became a mother, this was also a lesson I taught me 3 girls. To me, dog-earing a book is as disrespectful as spitting in someone's face! (Well, maybe not that harsh, but it is something that makes me angry).

Now that I'm older, my home library has grown by leaps and bounds. I have bookshelf after bookshelf full of wonderful books. I keep bookmarks in every room of my house, plus I also use those dang inserts from magazines as book marks (they're made of cardboard, so they work nicely).

I don't write in the majority of my books unless it is an inscription of who bought me the book or when I received it. I also have many autographed books. I do have a tendency to write in "self-help" books or in text books that are my own - this helps me if I'm studying something new. Other than that, I never write in a book.

I try very hard to keep the book jackets with the books, but sometimes this is hard, especially if it is a book that I like to reread. In that case, I'll take the book to my public library and have them laminate the jacket cover - just like they do for library books. This keeps the cover nice and clean and I don't have to worry about tearing the cover every time I reread a book.

When it comes to checking books out of the library, I try to follow the same rules as with my own books. I always use a bookmark and I never dog-ear the pages. It makes me so mad to check out a book and find half the pages have been dog-eared at one time or another. I would also never think of writing in a library book, or any one else's book.

Books have always been my friends, so they deserve the same kindness and consideration that I would give to a living friend. Books are our legacy and they will endure long after I have left this world.