Today I’m taking part in the Book Blogger Hop, a weekly hop hosted by Billy B at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer (originally created by Jennifer at Crazy-For-Books). You can see the hop schedule here.“Each week the hop will start on a Friday and end on Thursday. There will be a weekly prompt featuring a book related question. The hop’s purpose is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.”
Question of the Week: Do you read hardcovers with the dust jacket on or off? Why or why not?
(submitted by Maria @ A Night’s Dream of Books)
I always leave the dust jackets on. In fact, it never really even occurred to me to remove them. But having read some other responses I’m now thinking perhaps I should! I suppose they can be fiddly and annoying and the edges can curl up or even get torn if you’re not careful. I just have the feeling that if I took them off I would misplace them and they would end up covered in sticky toddler fingerprints.
Amber at The Literary Phoenix has encouraged me to take a look at mine to see if there’s any hidden artwork underneath. I hadn’t thought about how the raw covers could be quite beautiful. If you wanted to create a traditional ‘olde worlde’ style bookcase, you could remove all your dust jackets and your shelves would look very distinguished. I love the gorgeous cover art on the dustjackets though, so I definitely wouldn’t ditch them for good!
Do you remove the dust jackets from your hardbacks?
Yay I also leave the dust jacket on my books! I don’t want them possibly getting damaged or misplaced.
Good to see I’m not alone in this.
Ah, that’s something I have to confess I’d love, an old world library. I’d forgive hardbacks all their annoyances to stash them in a proper library all of my own… Dust jackets off, a must.
That said, I have a friend who has actually framed her favourite dust jackets and hung them on her study wall. Just because. She said the artwork was too pretty to stay hidden on a shelf.
To each their own, eh?!
I like your friend’s idea. If I had the time and the wall space I’d probably do that too.
I keep the dust jacket on. Like you, I’d probably lose it if I took it off. LOL I will also use the flap as a bookmark.
I can’t believe I never thought of using it as a bookmark. It seems a lot of people do.
I will have to look for hidden artwork.
I have only found engraved titles or embossed titles…I hope those are the correct terms to use.
I take mine off and put them tucked in between other books so the spine of the cover is showing. That way I know where it is and can see it. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and what you do.
Have a great week.
That’s a good tip, I’ll give that a try! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great week too.
Let me know if it works out for you. 🙂
That’s a good point! I love how hardcovers look. I definitely dig the olde world aesthetic.
Me too! Thanks for stopping by.
LOL kids and pets. They do give books a run for their money 😀
So true. I’m trying to teach her to treat books respectfully but she is still not quite there yet. I just cringe when she turns the pages in the middle and not the corner.
GREAT post, Tizzy! And you have an interesting point about the “raw covers”. Most currently-published books, though, have rather “blah” covers underneath the dust jackets. The only truly BEAUTIFUL “raw covers” I’ve seen are the ones for the Barnes & Noble collectible editions. Those are inspired by 19th-century book covers. They have no DJs, but the designs are made right on the covers. OMG, they are SO GORGEOUS!! I have several of those in my collection. I don’t know if I’ll ever actually read them, though. The page edges are gilded, too. I would have to be VERY CAREFUL when handling them as I read.
If you don’t want to have your toddlers leave fingerprints on your DJs, just do this: remove the DJ of the book you’re currently reading, each time you sit down to read it, and put it up on a high shelf, leaving it there while you’re reading the book. Then, when you’re finished for the day, retrieve the DJ and put it back on the book. That way, you will definitely not misplace it! Lol.
Thanks for sharing! So sorry for the late comment back…..:( Thanks for commenting on my own BBH post!! <3 <3 🙂 🙂
I’ve seen some beautiful hardbacks like that in Waterstones, usually classics like Pride and Prejudice or Alice in Wonderland, they are absolutely gorgeous. I wouldn’t read them either. I will try putting the DJs out of reach like you suggested.
GREAT!! I think this will really work out for you!! HUGS!!! <3 <3 <3 🙂 🙂 🙂
I don’t take the dust jacket of either because it doesn’t bother me, but I do understand why some readers take them off. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog hop last week Tizzy.
You’re welcome, I had fun taking part.