How do you hold your books?

[Senior2315]

Okay, this question might sound ridiculous, but I'm serious.

How do you grip your books when you read? When I was a kid, I used to curve them back like I do to a news paper. However that destroyed the cover of the books and permanently malformed them. Nowadays, I take care of my books when reading. Usually, I even grasp them with two hands.

What about you? How do you grip your book? Do you try not to harm them at all?

[kiki1982]

:lol: My father also holds them like you held them when you were a child. My mother can't comprehend that and her hairs stick up if she sees him do it. She even doesn't like giving him a book to look into that is hers as he will crack it, she says. But then she is so bloody careful that her books look like new. She barely opens them, I think...

I try to hold them with one hand (thumb or hand on the bottom) or with two if that doesn't work.

No, I don't try to harm them, but they mostly look worn when I have finally read them, unless they are very very short. Because... they come with me everywhere, so their covers wear and sometimes their pages get a little bent and things like that... My mother's hairs stick up when she sees my books. Still, I like it. At least they look as if they have been used. :D

[OrphanPip]

No, I don't try to harm them, but they mostly look worn when I have finally read them, unless they are very very short. Because... they come with me everywhere, so their covers wear and sometimes their pages get a little bent and things like that... My mother's hairs stick up when she sees my books. Still, I like it. At least they look as if they have been used. :D

That always happens to my books too, but I do try to keep them in relatively good condition. Usually read with one hand, at the bottom, or two hands depending on the size of the book. I don't care too much about my paperbacks, but the hard-covers that I have spent a fair bit of money on, or my admittedly overpriced graphic novels, I am more careful about.

My father does that bending back of the cover thing too, I won't let him touch my books either. That's one thing I find irritating on some of the used books I've bought, the badly creased spine, so bad you can barely make out which book it is.

[Jazz_]

Until a couple years ago I was very careful with my books, I would hold them with two hands and try not to bend them at all (they always looked new after reading :p) - but I eventually started just reading with one hand for ease and I became less protective of my books as I began to buy them much more often.

I also discovered a great second-hand book store right around the corner, and was naturally less worried about creasing old paperbacks ;)

[Sapphire]

I've been thinking about this, and I decided I mostly lay them down. Either on a table or desk, on the arm-rest, on my knees, on one of my (lower) arms - or just on the ground (at which point I also sit/lay down on the ground :p).

With soft covers I sometimes read as Senior2315 described, but only for the left pages at the beginning of the book, or the right pages at the end. I do sometimes hold the book as Kiki1982 mentions: with one hand under the bind, and one or two of my fingers inside the book to keep it open.

Anybody who uses "reading supports" like you can find in some libraries - they put the book up at an angel somewhere between 45 and 60 percent to the horizontal plane. I really liked the ones I saw in the British Library in London :) I have to go back there and make a technical drawing of one so I can make one for myself :D

[Scheherazade]

I usually hold a book in my palm while my fingers folding over the top, where the pages join. If it is a particularly large book, some of it will be resting inside of my arm and I use fingers of my other hand at the bottom of the page (to turn as well).

After reading it, I am not sure if this description makes sense!

Maybe should post a diagram :D

[Lynne50]

Oh Heaven forbid! I could never turn back a paperback and especially not a hardback. I work in a library and I did work in an elementary school, (up until last year) and I was always mentioning to the children the correct way of handling books so the spine was not under stress. More importantly, I told them how to turn a page..from the top right hand corner. I was instructed early on by my father who would never have thought of scrunching the pages while turning. It still makes me cringe when kids squeeze the pages together to turn them.

[Helga]

I hold them with both hands, sometimes one on each side and sometimes in my palm and the other hand on the pages. I always try to take care of my books and most of my books look pretty good even though I may have read them a few times. except maybe a few books of poetry that have been read more than other books. but in general I try and hold them so they won't look very torn.

[Clio08]

For me, I think it depnds on what I am reading. If its a new or heavy HB, I'll be likely to use both hands or to rest the book on a flat surface with one hand gently holding it open. If its an old/used paperback I will hold it in just one hand, thumb holding it open.

[The Comedian]

Here's how I hold my books:

-- Imagine an open book -- I have my thumb in the crack of the open binding with the rest of my hand splayed across the back binding and covers for support. I usually hold my book in this way with my left hand and turn the pages with my right.

I'm right handed, by the way.

Oh, and I always break the binding by folding back my paperbacks from time to time. I like to mark now far I've read, and when I put the book on my shelf, I want it to look read, not simply purchased.

[JuniperWoolf]

I hold mine same as The Comedian. That's why with weakly bound books, the spines always split at the bottom.