Do You Dog Ear Your Page?

In the bookish world, this is truly the great debate of our time. As a community we must consider whether dog ear-ing pages of a book should be considered  wanton destruction, or simply the most convenient way to mark your place in a book. This post is pretty silly, but I really like having fun debates about topics that don’t have a right answer but where people get really excited and worked up about their side!

So, I thought it would be fun topic to talk about and I’d love to hear some of your opinions!.

I know people who absolutely hate the idea of dog ear-ing a page. I mean I’ve seen people physically wince while watching someone fold a page in their book. From what I’ve heard some people feel as though dog ear-ing pages is damaging the book and therefore ghastly. By contrast, I know some people who almost never use bookmarks in favor of dog ear-ing.

Personally I think I’m fairly moderate on this subject. I don’t personally do it, but I can’t say I mind when I see it. I love reading and I adore books, and while I think actually damaging books is obviously something to be avoided; I sometimes think we conflate the destruction of a physical book and the destruction of its ideas.

I honestly  think the only time I have been bothered by dog ear-ing was finding it in books that were assigned in high school, where every other page was folded. Though In my opinion that is more an issue of respecting someone else’s property, and the fact that these books were already pretty torn up/

But, if someone wants to dog ear their own personal book, I don’t mind at all. The people who I personally know who seem to do this the most are power readers, who go through books incredibly quickly. So maybe dog ear-ing allows them to read at their preferred pace.

I also think there is a certain charm to dog eared books, I think it gives them a bit of a story. I often buy second hand books that have tog eared pages and cracked spines, and I see a book that was obviously well loved!

That’s it! I’d love to hear your thoughts! Do you dog ear pages? Or does the thought make you shudder?