54 Comments

This made me so happy. I swear that woman exists in every town on earth. She also might be both my mom and my mother-in-law. And I will certainly become her one day. I'm going to start designing posters for obscure public library etiquette. Sounds like there's an investor in your neighborhood, Tom. Get her phone number for me, will you? 😉

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Jan 1, 2023Liked by Tom Pendergast

I learned from my parents to treat all books with care and to this day- no breaking a books spine, nor dog earring a page, nor flipping it on its back… ouch!!!

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I am a supreme offender, but I have a process. My bookmarks for where I'm at in a book are sliced lengths from junk mail catalogues, which arrive in a never ending stream in our post box. No dog ear there. But I do dog ear pages of interest. Abundantly. The dog ear flows easily during my reading. A flick of a finger and it's done. When I'm finished reading for a while, dog ears are replaced with short little bookmarks, harvested from the junk mail. So the dog ears disappear. Guilt about dog ears suffices. No posters necessary. My books have bookmarks growing from their leaves.

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Jan 1, 2023·edited Jan 2, 2023Liked by Tom Pendergast

I use the evil step sister of the dog ear. I flip it over, open to the page where I stopped. Our library has an overabundance of cheap bookmarks they hand out for free. So when my wife spots my infraction she flips the book back over and slips in one of those bookmarks. It's what makes our marriage work.

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Jan 1, 2023Liked by Tom Pendergast

Little old ladies, gotta love 'em, thanks for providing a chuckle to start '23.

=

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Bookmark now, but I used to just remember what page I'm on... lol

Ah, the salad days!

~Graham

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Nice, Tom, as we use the same library I could picture the scene ... it has a lot of posters! But let me take this opportunity to pitch Libby, the library's digital app for checking out audio books ... my entry under 'other' if I were to respond to the poll.

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Jan 1, 2023Liked by Tom Pendergast

What a sweet lady. I don't want to use the "O" word since it might apply to me. I used to volunteer repairing books at the library (Pre-2020) and people damage books in the worst ways...

Mostly I read with a Kindle or listen to audiobooks so it saves my place for me. Another advantage of electronics. If I'm reading a library book I always use a bookmark of some kind. But if it's my own book, I've been known to dog ear the occasional corner.

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I'm back to explain my "other" vote in your poll. I wanted there to be an "all of the above option". I am guilty of dog-earring in a pinch. Although, I recently checked out a book from the library that was dog-eared excessively, and I was grumbling to myself about "manners and the state of the world and kids these days." Plus, I was annoyed that the dog-ears didn't reveal any particularly dog-ear worthy pages to me. I'm all for dog-earring something provocative for the next guy, but otherwise I'm a bookmarker. And will bookmark with literally anything flat that's lying around. Gum wrappers might be the lowest form I've utilized. Those annoying "special offer" promotion cards that fall out of magazines are great, too.

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Hey Tom, so glad to be hosting you as a guest on What’s Curation? this Friday.

I’ve got a snazzy new website and moved to a different platform. Folks can check my Substack for a taste of my writing, but are encouraged to visit www.whatscuration.com and sign up there to start getting emails.

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Dogged Eared (is that how you spell it?) pages drives me crazy. Thankfully using an e-reader I don't have to be bothered by this anymore. This does remind me, however, that one of my new year's goals was to use the library more instead of buying e-books. So maybe I'd better get me a book mark.

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Jan 1, 2023Liked by Tom Pendergast

If I’m not reading an ebook, I’ll use a bookmark if it’s within arm’s reach. If not, I’ll dog ear and feel a slight bit of guilt.

If you can give me enough of your bookmarks, I’ll never dog ear again!

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I got inspired and dashed off a quick poster. Unfortunately, Substack doesn't let you post images in comments, so I uploaded it here:

https://writewildly.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Dog-Ears-Poster.jpg

Problem solved!

~Graham

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Jan 1, 2023Liked by Tom Pendergast

If I have a bookmark - which could be anything: train tickets, post it note, square of toilet paper (clean and replaced with a proper bookmark asap of course) paper clip, etc - I’ll always use it, but if there’s nothing to hand I’m not averse to a small dog ear! Marking my place is more important than avoiding a bent corner.

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I loved reading about 'sensible shoes' lady! What a gem! 🤣

I used to dog-ear books. Not any more. And as I child I had a taste for paper - different publishers' paper would taste different. Very odd! I've always been an oddball for different flavours....! I would tear the unprinted parts of pages I'd read, and chew them.

Yes, I'm crackers! And these days, I assure you, I pay MUCH more respect to the books I'm reading!

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Jan 1, 2023Liked by Tom Pendergast

It’s when book is open and you lay it on the table-spread Eagle like. Big no no!! :)

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