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Book Treatment

John Gruber's essay on Amazon's Kindle contained this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

If you would know how a man treats his wife and his children, see how he treats his books.

I've always been appalled at how people treat books. I go out of my way to choose thin bookmarks that don't damage books. I've never been one to highlight or write in books, even in college, and I certainly don't dog-ear pages as a means of bookmarking.

How do you treat your books?

P.S. I'm not entirely certain I agree with the Emerson quote, but it got me thinking…

2 Responses to "Book Treatment"

  1. Same for me. When I lend a book, I tell the borrower: “See this book? It looks new, but I've read it four times…” 🙂

  2. I always go out of my way to treat books with the utmost respect. I have a real problem with throwing books away, too; I still have books from when I was about 5 years old in pristine condition.

    I recently worked on a cruise ship for 8 months, and took away some brand new books... The cabin stewardess knocked a can of Coke all over them, and it's fair to say I wasn't very happy. Even though the books were still perfectly readable, I managed to get some money out of the company and replaced them!