Book meme (from Christopher Hall and Byzantine Dixie)

1. To mark your page you: use a bookmark, bend the page corner, leave the book open face down?
I've done all of them--usually I mark my place with a piece of paper.

2. Do you lend your books?
And never see many of them again... :-(

3. You find an interesting passage: you write in your book or NO WRITING IN BOOKS!
Usually I'll highlight margins. I put a star by a good passage. A few books have a few 5-star passages. Sometimes I write brief notes. I find it interesting to read annotations I wrote 10-20 years ago.

4. Dust jackets - leave it on or take it off.
When possible, I cover dust jackets with Contac paper. It keeps the books nicer longer.

5. Hard cover, paperback, skip it and get the audio book?
Hardcover is preferred; I enjoy audio too.

6. Do you shelve your books by subject, author, or size and color of the book spines?
Dewey decimal, thank you very much! (My mom was a librarian.)

7. Buy it or borrow it from the library later?
I do both; the local library will have a wing someday with my name on it.

8. Do you put your name on your books - scribble your name in the cover, fancy bookplate, or stamp?
I write my name on the first sheet.

9. Most of the books you own are rare and out of print books or recent publications?
Most are more recent, though I have some old gems. (I have Herman Sasse's copy of the Reformed Confessions.) :-)

10. Page edges - deckled or straight?
Straight, please.

11. How many books do you read at one time?
Oh, dear. More than I should.

12. Be honest, ever tear a page from a book?
I don't remember doing that. But I have torn articles from periodicals.

13. (An added question) What subject matters do you have the most books in?

Philosophy, especially ancient.
Theology, especially dogmatics
Languages
History, especially Byzantine & American Civil War/War between the states
Russian literature

14. (Another added question) What do you have none of?

Cookbooks.


And while I'm at it, I have a few books to sell: most especially a Philadelphia edition of Luther's Works, a volume or two of Sasse and some other things like that from a former life.