Taken out of context I must seem so strange.

20 December 2005


Script:
Setting:

So various peoples have been doing that “weird habit meme” thing, and it turns out that quite a few people like to keep their books in almost pristine condition. Now the question I must therefore pose to you is this; does that mean that their habits are not in fact weird, but the norm, and my preference for “well-thumbed” paperbacks is the weird one?


Crane with Christmas Lights

Crane with Christmas Lights,
originally uploaded by Ms. Jen.

Crane-owners of dublin (or operators/drivers or whatever you are called), what is the deal with the lack of decorations this year? I’ve only seen one or two cranes done up with lights. And none with Santa, or raindeer. What’s going on? It isn’t christmas until the Budweiser ad[1] has been on and the city is flooded with lit up cranes.

We’ve had the Bud adverts for a while now, so now it is the cranes turn.

In more serious news, today (20th Dec) is usually the wort day for traffic fatalities in Ireland. So drive carefully and watch out for shoppers.


Linknotes:

  1. you know the one, with the 8 horses, and the tree on top of the carraige-thing, and the wishing you are yours the very best this holiday season

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11 Responses

  1. banzai cat says:

    Mmm… regarding "pristine" and "well-thumbed" books, you may be right. Personally, I don't care as I really collect books for reading. However, I do think the book gets high marks if it gets "well-thumbed" due to constant lending out.

    Now making notes on the side of the pages is another thing… *shivers*

  2. Alan says:

    It all depends. With new books, I prefer them to look new. But I buy a lot of antiquarian books, and in that case I love to find underlinings and marginalia, it gives you a sense of the person or people who have read it before you.

  3. anne says:

    Oh no, the books on my shelves should look like they've been read. And when I lend a book, I don't care what state it's in when I get it back, as long as I do get it back.

  4. Fence says:

    See as long as I can read the book I don't really mind what condition it is in. So I guess I'm more like you Anne.

    Unless of course the book is a library one. Can't stand people who write in library books. Not because of the damage to the book but because of the lack of respect for other people. Afterall, half the time their "notes" are wrong :)

  5. NineMoons says:

    I hate other people marking my books (this harks back to my childhood and getting the Anastasia books back from the McIntyres and them being dog-eared and COFFEE-RINGED! Aaagh) but once they reach the no longer pristine stage, I don't mind any more. I hate pages coming out, writing on books (that's a shout-out to your little sis) and folding down pages. I don't mind busted spines or well-thumbed looking books. I own a fair few second and third handers and I like them being a bit battered. It also makes it easier to carry them around, cos you don't have to worry about it getting wrecked.
    In summary – you are not weird. For this reason anyway.

  6. "Unless of course the book is a library one. Can’t stand people who write in library books. Not because of the damage to the book but because of the lack of respect for other people. Afterall, half the time their “notes” are wrong"

    Weird habit number 6:

    I tend to write in library books. :P

  7. Carl V. says:

    I too like to keep my books in pristine condition. I started doing this when I was a kid and was borrowing my uncles' sci fi books and I learned to read them without creasing the spine, etc. and have always done this. All of my books, hardback and paperback (if they were bought new) still look like they haven't been read. I also hate to loan books to people for fear of how they may come back to me. If I talk alot about a book and someone asks to borrow it I usually go out and buy them a paperback version of it. There are a few people I know who are the same way and I trust them implicitly with my books. I also have a habit of taking dustjacket covers off and placing them elsewhere when I read so as not to ruin them.

  8. LiVEwiRe says:

    I like the idea of lights on the machinery. Not sure why, but I do. And what is it with Dec. 20th?!?!?!

  9. NineMoons says:

    Carl, I always take the dust-jackets off too. They get wrecked and I can't read with them on. But then I forget where I put them and they get squished…
    I have another weird book habit (I could have filled my list with just book habits!) – if I'm buying a series (like Wheel of Time or just collecting an author's back catalogue), I really prefer having them match. I I'll buy all the reissued Heyers at full price, even the ones I already have in some other edition, because they look pretty on the shelf. And when I was buying Wheel of Time, on two occasions I bought the hardback cos I couldn't wait for the paperback, but that ruined the appearance of the series, so I bought it in paperback as well. Then that was ruined when they changed the cover art. The untimely death of Josh Kirby made me glad I hadn't started collecting the Pratchetts yet.
    This is not just a weird habit, it's a bloody expensive one!

  10. Fence says:

    UI, I am shocked! Shocked! Should I say it again, just for effect?

    Carl, you must turn to the dark side, break those spines. Turn down corners to mark your page ;)

    Livewire, lights on cranes are just great, cause you can see them from all over the place.