Probably not. While it is heartening to see such unanimity of opinion on the SDMB (where, typically, any two members have a minimum of three conflicting opinions), and, while I have to confess to getting this pile-on started, I would certainly hope that we are not actually planning to burn anyone.
She confessed to mutilating (in a minor way) books, not children or even kittens.
:eek: Okay. I’m really, really, really sorry for ever doing this and will never do it again. Cross my heart. I hope everyone doesn’t completely hate me; I’m generally a good person, I swear.
Oh. Um.
shifty eyes
Please don’t.
I had to break Mom out of the habit of doing that with our books - because it brings out a worse habit in me! You see, if the corner is “marked”, my fingers will go there and start
folding and
unfolding,
and folding,
and unfolding…
So it gets worse and worse and it wouldn’t be the first time one of those corners breaks. Sorry 
Ditto on that. You are defacing/ruining/breaking someone else’s property. Stop that. It’s bad form. Get a scrap of paper from a magazine or something.
Wait, I just noticed. “Only copy in the library for the next 300 years”?
So… if I dog ear say, Terry Pratchett’s “Thief of time”, do I get a pass?
I used to do it to my own books but never to library copies or books I’ve borrowed from friends. Now I don’t even do it to my own books. The other thing is bending the book apart until the spine cracks…that’s another no-no in Faerie bookland.
No, you get hit with my copy of it. It’s hardcover!
Yes, dog-earing library books is bad. There are worse things though… like the two morons who defaced a copy of M. Scott Peck’s People of the Lie that I borrowed (I’m into political writing this year): one had covered page after page with weird religious maunderings in pen… and the other had blanked then out with the kind of indelible black marker, the kind of marker that soaks through the page. And into the one underneath it. Jerks.
The other books I’d borrowed which had missing pages almost seemed trivial by comparison.
You mean, err- “recycle” not “throw out”, right? 
No, but I will cut you a little slack for anything by Terry Brooks.
Yes it is bad to earmark library books. But seriously…it’s evil, beatings, etc. The hyperbole in this thread is about the worst I have ever seen and probably the worst ever in the history of mankind. You people are worse than Hitler.
What hyperbole?
I bought a guide to dog breeds at a garage sale. It was not only dog-eared, but dog-chewed. There were tooth marks all over it, and one corner was gone comepletely.
A library book is public property. Defacing it in any way is totally inappropriate.
I’m sure you would be a bit upset by anyone dog earing and/or marking up any of your books.
As the sign said at the blacksmith shop:
“If you spit in the water bucket at home,
Spit in here, we want you to feel at home!”
Thank you, Gangster Octopus. I have stopped folding down the tips of pages since it is apparently a crime worse than raping children. But really, people, I’m wasn’t ripping pages out of them to wipe my ass with. Some perspective, please.
As I said in the OP, I hate it when people mark in books because it interferes with the book’s readability. Turning down the very tip of the page does not, and I would not mind in the least if someone did that to one of my books. If I loan you a book, I want you to read it, throw it in your book bag, take it with you and love it.
Again, I apologize for ever turning down the tips of pages and realize now that I should be put to death for my crimes, so you needn’t continue the pile on.
Your best bet is to just ignore this thread. Dopers being Dopers, there are probably still a few who need to make a witty observation, so there will be more posts. However, you have already noted that you have discontinued the practice, so responding to this thread will merely keep it on the front page, encouraging others to post to it.
Just a book!!!
Yeah well that’s what the Nazis thought when they burned a whole load of them.
Use a bookmark, most libraries give them away and if yours doesn’t use any piece of scrap paper.
Renee, thanks for looking after books, and for taking on-board the dog-ear page thing. I recall other threads like this where damage (and some minor like dog-earing) was raised, and all heck broke loose.
I’m a bit like you, though – I like books to be loved. I’m just careful with those I’ve borriwed (and I ask my friends to be equally as careful with mine.)
I tend to get over the mishaps. After some heavy sighing. 
I try not to dog-ear books, and will use whatever is at hand as a bookmark if I’m in a hurry and one of my nice storebought (or child-made) bookmarks is not to be found immediately. Business cards, hair elastics, receipts from Jack in the Box… as long as it’s small, relatively flat, and will not leave a stain, it will work.
What does upset me is finding writing in library books. Relevant notes in pencil on the margins I don’t mind so much, because it shows that at least the previous reader got some understanding out of the material. I do get angry, and will report to the librarian, if I find irrelevant, juvenile writing of the “Stacy is a ho” variety, or better yet, “Turn to page 69” and then, on the margin of page 69, “I like boobs” (actual writing I found in a library book once) :mad: