Top Ten Bookish Confessions

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

You know what time it is? It’s bookish pet peeve time!

1) I hate hate hate stopping a book when I’m in the middle. Even if it’s awful. Even if it’s so awful that it’s killing me. I cannot stop in the middle unless I really don’t think I’ll be able to finish or unless it’s taken me three months to get half-way through or unless boredom has begun to define my reading life. Then I might have enough will-power to put the book down. Maybe.

2) Even if a book jacket is annoying me to pieces, I won’t take it off. You know those certain jackets that just won’t stay on because they’re like three sizes too big for the book? Yeah, those are the ones I’m talking about. Any logical person would just take the stupid thing off so they could read the book without crying out in irritation when the jacket slips off every thirty seconds, but not me. Nope. I opt for crying out in irritation every thirty seconds and jerking the jacket back into place (and in the process giving myself 12,801,982,390,810 paper cuts).

3) This is a past book crime, but one I’ve never confessed, so *deep breath* hear I go: I used to mark out cuss words in books. I’d have my Sharpie at the ready, and whenever I came across a curse word, I’d cross it out. I mean, I was twelve or thirteen at the time, so you can’t blame me. Not exactly something to be ashamed about, I guess, but they were library books. *sheepish grin* Just goes to show that even the most avid of readers don’t follow all the library rules. I feel like such a rebel. ;)

4) This is probably true for most of us, but I can’t have any of my books in any form of bad condition. No bend pages, absolutely no dog-ears, no creases in the cover, no visible wear on the top and bottom of the spine. I just can’t tolerate any visible wear on my books. Library books, on the other hand, are a different story. Sometimes I wince when I see how shabby some of them are. Some honestly need to be put out of their misery. But I can take care of them while they’re in my care for three weeks, right? Nurse them back to health, so to speak…ok, even I’ll admit this is getting a little weird.

5) I’m not thrilled with the idea of loaning out books. I will, on occasion, loan out certain books to very special friends who I know will take care of them, but I’d baulk at the idea of letting just anyone use my bookshelf as their personal library. Call me selfish. I can take it.

6) I like to return library books right after I finish them. I’m not one of these people that like to hold on to the book up until the due date. Why do people do that?! Especially if there’s a waiting list on the book, the thing to do is return it. You’re done with it. Let someone else have a turn now. It’s a basic concept of sharing. You know, the thing they taught us in preschool?

7) I’m a sucker for a good romance. Insta-love or not, I’ll take anything sometimes. I know I’ve ranted on how I hate insta-love, but sometimes it’s done so well that it’s easy to overlook. I guess I’m still trying to shake off all the unrealistic expectations about love that Disney gave me and the rest of the female population. It’s not instant, but sometimes it’s nice to pretend it is. That’s what crappy romances are for.

8) I’m chill with taking library books to bed. This isn’t really a confession as much as something I wanted to address since a lot of people *coughgermaphobicscough* have this…fear…of reading library books when they’re in bed, as if mite are going to crawl out from between the pages and nest under their covers. Or maybe it’s the fact that people (presumably dirty people, of course) have touched the book, and therefore it’s unsafe to handle whilst in bed or eating food. Get. A. Life. I’m completely ok with reading library books anytime, anywhere.    

9) I smell my books. Who doesn’t? Wait, you don’t? Well. You’re missing out. Books young and old have their very own unique scent…though in older books, it’s more of a musty stink, but it’s a smell nonetheless.

10) When I read a book, I read it cover to cover. I’m talking acknowledgements, the dedication page, the research pages (if there are any), the author bio, and sometimes the publication page. What can I say? I like getting to know the book inside out, and as a book blogger, it’s my job to know books inside out. *grin* I absolutely love my job.

What’s your Top Ten Book Confessions? Do you annotate? Do you let library fines build up until you’re wading up to your nose in them? Do you hate a book series but secretly have a fictional crush on the MC? Now’s the time to own up to all those sinful book crimes and pet peeves, so go ahead and ‘fess up in the comments.