I found this glorious amended tag on Cam’s Bookish Tales! She found the original on The Orangutan Librarian. She thought, “Oh this is fun!” And I pretty much thought exactly the same thing! I may have even done something similar before, but I loved thinking about how different of a reader I am now, compared to as a child.
I have a feeling I’m not the only one who had bad reading habits as a sprout.
Immediately cracking the book spine!
Even thinking about cracking the spine of a book now gives me the heeby jeebies! I’ve become somewhat of a rigid book reader. My books are not damaged in anyway, but when I was a child I wanted to be able to fold a book in half (mass market, obviously) and hold it in one hand for easy reading. In fact, I hated hardcover editions because I couldn’t crack them!
Dog-earing the book pages!
While I’m an avid bookmark user now, with my own bookmark collection, I never used them as a child. I was famous for dog-earing every book I read. I can still pick up one of my old books and see all the places where I paused reading, because there are little creases in the corners. It eats away at me now.
Carrying books in my purse!
I actually only stopped doing this recently, when I realized that putting my precious hardcover in my purse damages the dust jacket and bends the corners. Now, they’re hand carried very gently. It’s a must.
Hiding a book inside my school book in class!
I was super quiet at school. I had friends, but when I was in class I pretty much kept to myself. Hiding behind a book was the perfect way to keep my head down, and I don’t ever remember getting caught either. Probably because I was so quiet!
Never returning my library books!
Okay! This one sounds bad, and I know it is. I’m so embarrassed about it, but I’ve also learned from it. I don’t handle deadlines well, so now I just don’t visit the library. In the past, in my youth, I was just really bad about returning books. My fines are probably astronomical!
Never putting down a bad book!
This one was hard for me to come to terms with… and if you still are one of those people who finish everything they start no matter what, I definitely understand the compulsion. Honestly, I think the only reason I consider this a ‘bad book habit’ is because of how my brain works. If I’m not enjoying a read, I stop reading. Trying to force myself through a bad book meant that I read less, which led to me feeling stressed and miserable. I need to be reading to decompress.
Birdie Bookworm 
I am terrible with deadlines as well and that is why I only borrow audiobooks from my library through an app! I am still working on being able to put down a bad book. I have such a hard time doing that!
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It’s really hard to do, especially when you can think of books that were redeemed by the end.
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I used to crack spines and dog ear pages all the time. I look back now and wish I hadn’t because so many books got ruined because of it and I had to get rid of them because they fell apart!
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That’s exactly how I feel. Maybe it’s because I collect more hardcovers, but I’m so careful with all my books. Maybe too careful, because my paperbacks don’t even look read.
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That’s the same with my paperbacks as well once I finally decided to stop cracking the spines haha!
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I’m still trying to get out of the “never putting down a bad book” phase. I’m a stubborn reader. I think being a book blogger and seeing people DNF books has hit the point home that it’s okay to stop reading a book if you’re no longer enjoying it.
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That’s definitely what hit it home for me. With so many great recommendations out there, I couldn’t continue to hold onto books I didn’t like.
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It’s funny, because I was just thinking about this the other day.I think the only bad habit a child can have regarding reading is to not read at all. (And maybe returning library books late. LOL)
I was looking at my books the other day, and I was thinking that I don’t want my books to look pristine. I want someone to walk into my book room, pick up a Judith McNaught book, look at the spine, and say ‘WOW! You must love this author!’ I want my bookshelf to reflect what I love not just by what’s on it, but how worn they look. Maybe that’s why I love paperbacks so much vs. hardbacks. BUT, based on other aspects of my life, I can certainly understand someone’s desire to keep them looking perfect.
Fun post!
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Oh yeah, definitely the worst reading habit a child could have would be not to read. It makes me sad when I see kids who haven’t been read to.
That used to be my thoughts too. Books that look loved, and worn, say something. Now it’s a mix of how books that beaten up don’t last a long time and need to be replaced, but also because I love the way my pristine hardcovers look in my house. They’re gorgeous!
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Yeah. I don’t re-read enough to fully ruin a book. That’s what my audios are for!
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hahaha I totally hid books inside my school books too 😉
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I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of us bookworms did! 🙂
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I still dog-ear pages & crack spines. Why? Because a book with a cracked spine & dog-eared pages is generally a well-loved and well-read book. If books are in pristine condition, I often wonder if they’ve even actually been read. I guess it’s just a quirk of mine – I like my books to look like someone’s actually read them. LOL
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Haha, that’s what another friend of mine said too. I can understand that logic.
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I love that you almost wrote friends instead of books, haha. But yes! I used to break spines and dog-ear pages and even write in my books sometimes if I didn’t have a paper with me! And I put books in my purse, my backpack, suitcases, anywhere. I also used the dust jacket folded over part like a bookmark (which made the dust jacket kind of deformed). I really just wasn’t that concerned about how my books looked. Some of them were from used book stores anyway. Although, when I look at the few older books I still have, they don’t look terrible, just some creases in some of the spines. But yeah, now I only open paperbacks like halfway and will contort my body instead to make sure the spine doesn’t break! 😛 And I’m getting better at DNFing! I still don’t do it a lot, but I’ve DNFed like four books so far this year.
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LOL!! That’s what I do too! Everyone laughs at me because I read a paperback by only opening it enough to see the words! (I also used the dustjacket flap as a bookmark, lmao. I didn’t dog ear hardbacks, but I’d definitely warp the dustjacket.)
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