For some book lovers, a list of major no-nos would go something like this:
- Do not dog-ear a book’s pages.
- Do not dribble coffee/tea/wine on your book.
- Ditto foodstuffs.
- Do not break a book’s spine.
- Do not allow the dust jacket to be torn or otherwise defiled.
- Do not deface the margins by scrawling your (likely inferior) thoughts.
- Ditto underlining and highlighting.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: If you’re borrowing a book your generous friend (or library) has lent you, doing any of the above is rude. Yes, sometimes it’s fun to eat potato chips while reading, but not while reading someone else’s book.
Outside the context of a borrowed book, though, are these really so bad? I’m discomfited by the suggestion, for several reasons. Continue reading “Book lovers’ 7 deadly sins … or not?”
and 
. I think I was assigned the former, at some point, and the latter, well, I’m guessing there’s little actual mirth involved.
, 
, and the short story “
.” Each is so shudder inducing in its own way that I’m a bit wary of tackling one of her longer works. Though her writing is so beautiful. I don’t know. I’m torn. 
, which my son needs for school. Approximately thirty minutes later, this errand ended with me driving out of the parking lot with five additional books stacked on the passenger seat beside me. 
, London with Sarah Crewe from 
or Paddington from 
, turn-of-the-century Manhattan with the five sisters from 
.
is how it facilitates reading in the dark. (And the “