I've decided t opost this one early because I have an awesome reveal scheduled for tomorrow and I want it out for the whole day. I am excited.
I have a confession to make: I am completely in love with books and their covers. There is nothing better to me than opening up a fresh book and smelling the pages. But there's just one issue; I am very particular about my books. No, I don't have OCD (well, I don't think I have OCD), I just like my books to be kept pretty, and immaculate. Some of my pet peeves may well stem from these issues, so beware, things might get a bit mean!
1. When someone isn't reading anything
I love books, so I will often ask people what they're reading, and what stuns me into silence (or sometimes a blinding rage) is when someone isn't reading anything. What do they do with all the in-between parts of their lives if they aren't reading? But really it's the excuses that get me. No-one that I ever talk to should ever tell me they don't have enough time. Everyone has enough time to read.
2. When a page has been turned over
Book maltreatment is a very serious issue for me, right up there with the chicken and the egg (answer; it depends where you stand on Darwin's theory of evolution). It someone turns over the corner of a page (or, God forbid, half the page) it ruins the page and makes it much easier to rip, and less easy to flick through.
3. When someone leaves a book open upside down instead of using a bookmark
Spine creasing actually causes me physical pain. My mum once did this to one of my Joanne Harris books and she got a right telling off. Now the spine is permanently bent :(. This issue also coincides with when someone opens the book way too wide and the spine creases. Not only that, but the glue binding the book together can get unstuck and then pages start falling out all over the place.
4. When someone has written in a book - and it's not their name
One day I will start a group against the maltreatment of books, I swear. I understand if you're writing in it for educational purposes, and it will only ever be your book, but when someone writes petty comments or randomness on a books pages, it is infuriating. This also goes for scribbling or drawing in books, and this is why I can't abide school libraries.
5. When books are badly bound
Pages falling out after about the third or fourth read tend to mean your book is badly bound. I much prefer it when a book has been sewn up, or failing that, an ebook where no pages can fall out.
6. When a hardback doesn't have its dust-jacket
They aren't protected, and they look so boring! What's the point of going to all that trouble to design the cover if the dust-jacket is then thrown away (or lost, or ruined). None, none whatsoever.
7. When people leave their bookmark in a book they haven't finished
I know I do this with some of my books, where I know that sooner or later I will pick it up again when I'm in a better mood for it, but it ticks me off when a bookmark has been left in and it's been given to a charity shop or sold at a boot sale. As far as books go, once I bought it, it's mine, and I have no intention of letting the previous owner have it back. Therefore, I don't want to know where they stopped. What if I stop there too?
8. When books are damaged at the bookstore
What kind of demon-people vandalise books at the shop? Why don't they slot the books back in with care instead of shoving them so their covers are all bent? Why don't they pick it up carefully to look at the blurb? Books are treasures, and they are easily breakable, but please, try not to break them before you've bought them!
9. When reading is viewed as anti-social behaviour
I understand that when you're at a social gathering and someone pulls out a book, it is anti-social. This is true. If they wanted to read their book, they should have damn-well stayed at home. However, if a child does this when they're in the midst of a group of adults, I say fine. If a person pulls out a book on the bus, or the train, or the plane, then why the hell not? If I am already reading a book and someone I know comes on the bus, nine times out of ten, I won't even notice you've arrived. It's not personal, it's just that books are so absorbing.
10. When someone doesn't read the book because they didn't like the film
Or, even worse, when someone doesn't read the book because they really liked the film. Almost every adaptation I have seen has always been inequal to the book in some way. Sometiem they lack the emotion, sometimes they miss out vital plotlines, sometimes they mess up an integral part of the charm of the book, sometimes the actor gets it completely wrong, sometimes they just don't make exciting films. But no-one should ever judge a book by it's film/TV counterpart, because most of the time, it's way better.
Kyrax
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