Today’s Booking Through Thursday:
Today’s question comes from Conspiracy-Girl:
I’m still relatively new to this meme so I’m not sure if this has been asked yet, but I’m curious how many of us write notes in our books. Are you a Footprint Leaver or a Preservationist?
I’ve been both over the years, but overall I’d say I’m a preservationist. I’ve had my spates of underlining or highlighting non-fiction books, usually a habit brought on by taking classes, but I’ve always returned to my habits of leaving books relatively untouched, with at most a dog-ear or two that I smooth out after I’m done writing my review. That way, after all, if I decide I don’t want to keep the book, I can donate it to the library when I’m done. Cookbooks, however, I absolutely write in. I put a rating on recipes as to how good the results were, and I note any changes to the recipe.
Yesterday’s book review was the delicious Hot Drinks by Mary Lou and Robert J. Heiss. I’m making progress in The Gift of Rain; it’s somewhat slow, but has definitely caught my interest, so even my limited attention span can hang on for the ride! Last night we made cranberry-walnut scones as our first recipe from The Pastry Queen Christmas, and they were awesome.
We have some a designs up at the shops, one that we’d originally intended to be infant wear, until a clever teenager pointed out that it would work for just about anyone:
I don’t mess with my paperbacks. They have to stay pristine.
I hadn’t thought of cookbooks. I have made notes in them in the post, though with some of the beautiful glossy ones that I have now I might just insert a sheet at the right page. I don’t cook so much that I’d lose the insert.
I leave my thoughts everywhere. Want to know what I think deep down? Look into my books and you’ll see them…
Happy BTT!
LOL on the baby onesie… I LOVE IT!
I write in my non-fiction or textbooks, always have and most likely always will … notes to help me remember pertinent information. But fiction?? NO. Never.
Happy BTT!
I can definitely understand commenting in a cookbook. It makes perfect sense, really. I’m more of a preservationist in the way you are when it comes down to it. I do sometimes make a small mark in pencil, but other than that, my books are left as is.
Some of us have memories like rusted buckets. I rarely give a book away, because I know I’ll be able to read it again in a year as if it was brand new. Call it “frugal memory syndrome”. =)
Unfortunately, I have a better memory with movies. But I can still enjoy rewatching a DVD for the n’th time, despite everything being familiar.
gautami: I know that’s a big deal with so many people, but well, I guess I eventually decided that I had better things to get wound up about. There’s enough stuff to stress over without worrying about whether I get a smudge of something on a book page or bend a page accidentally.
GeraniumCat: Heh, inserting sheets just wouldn’t work with the number of cookbooks we have and how often we use them.
Alice: I like that way of looking at it!
Marianne: Hehe… glad you like. That design was the brainchild of a friend/business partner; he’s good at that sort of thing. It was his son who suggested that it deserved to be made into more than just infant wear. *grin*
Literary Feline: Yeah. When it comes down to it, I like to keep my books in good condition because I care about them, but I’m not willing to send myself into a tizzy and stress about it when I have much better things to stress over.
Aaron: My memory is much the same, but there are just so many good books out there that I want to read that I almost never re-read books. When I do re-read books it’s one hell of an endorsement, though! (In fact the only ones I can think of at the moment are Anne Bishop’s ‘Black Jewels’ trilogy, although I’m sure there are a few more.)
I’m a preservationist. I rarely marked up even test reference books when studying. I’m a big fan of transferring notes and recipes to 3×5 cards and working from those. Though this last year when I was studying for a licensing exam, I copied over the errata to the book itself and highlighted a few key equations.
Cookbooks! Now that’s different. Sometimes I tweek a recipe and would go nuts if I couldn’t remember what I did the last time. A little reminder by the recipe is a good thing.
I didn’t think about cookbooks! Ok, I am now guilty…. I write in my cookbooks! Diane
Ah…I can understand about cookbooks though. I can deal with writing on school textbooks since I have to take notes, but a big no-no to me when it comes to novels though.
i love to write in my books – all kinds of books, but probably mostly cookbooks!