...treats her books like red haired strep-kids but mine like a beloved first born. Which, when alls said and done, is about right.
Oh yes, that sounds an ideal approach. From my end, though, a book is as much a valid and valuable abject just by its having been (ab)used. For instance, some of my most treasured books are those in which I scribbled at school: not just the wise notes dictated by teacher, but the inanities, momentary crushes and splinters of teenaged angst which turn that book into a part of me. Also, I treasure oter peoples' jottings and notes in margins and within the text body. I thrill to see, in pencil, someone's added apostrophe or, even better, some claim underlined twice or thrice and "NO!" scrawled angrily across the margin. This, to me, adds to the book and gives it history. I love to see a battered and well read book. It's been round the block; it's done its job, it has been a book. The equally treasured tome, spotless, upright and uncreased seems almost unfair on the book: like keeping a thoroughbred in a stable. |
