Tonight, I'm going to talk about books.  Specifically hard cover versus soft cover.  And here's how this popped into my head.

Last night, I finished Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen.  I love a good Sarah Dessen book.  I'm 22, but give me a good YA book and I'm happy.  She's such a beach-read kind of author.  But I digress.  Because I purchased the books mere months after it was published, I have it in hard-back.  Not many of my books are in hard-back.  I'm a read first, purchase later (except for Harry Potter #6 and #7, but really by that point, you kind of knew...) kind of girl.  Which means that the majority of the time, my books are in soft-back, which I prefer and here's why.

I can sometimes get distracted quite easily.  My hair looks pretty.  I haven't checked up on this website in a while.  A door slams outside.  I think my phone makes a noise.  Anything, really, unless I'm deeply immersed in something.  I can also get distracted by the rat-a-tat-tatting that my fingers make on hard-back books.  Not cool.  Who wants to get distracted by their own fingers?  Stop, don't answer that, I'm trying to keep it clean here kiddos.

This may sound a little strange (but this is me, so really, you should expect it...) but, to me, hard-back books just seem more aloof.  You can't roll their cover around to make them a bit easier to hold, you can't play with their corners very well, they don't mold to your back like a soft-back does.  Plus, they kind of remind me of textbooks and while I love school, when I'm reading for pleasure, I'm reading for pleasure.  Books are supposed to be your friend and be intimate with you and know your deepest thoughts and touch places you normally don't think about it.  Hard backs just don't do it for me.

Now a soft back book can grow with you. 

This is Anne.  Some of you may already know Anne, but not like I know Anne.  I was first introduced to Anne when I was 8 years old by my aunt.  She came wrapped to me in Snow White paper, all nicely boxed up with her 7 other stories (well, really only five others were hers, but you know...).  However, Anne and I didn't really mesh until I was about 10 and then, oh, how we meshed.  Anne because my best friend.  You can see a bit how Anne has been treated by me, but oh, it's been a lovely time.  Her cover has been taped back on not just once, but twice.  The box that once so neatly bound her and her other stories together disappeared about the time I turned 12.  Anne has been many places with me.  Many trips to my dad's over weekends.  Many different summer camps, both the stay away and day type.  She has also been to London.  That's right, I've taken Anne overseas with me.  The first book I purchase when I eventually get some type of e-reader - that's right, Anne of Green Gables.  Because Anne has grown with me over the years.  And she is a soft back.

Other books that have grown with me and are soft backs:

- all my Shakespeare's.  Now, I have quite a few (I was a theatre major), but those few are all well loved and have been marked up with monologues and notes to their little play hearts content.

- Harry Potter.  Now Harry Potter holds a special place in my heart because in reality, Rowling got me at just the right time.  I first read Harry when I was 11 or 12.  I literally grew up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.  I believe that Ron was my first real book-crush that has lasted through the ages.  And by through the ages, I mean, I still fight people for him.  I mentioned that the last two I have in hard-back and sometimes I wish I didn't.  However, I'm glad I got them when I did (meaning, the day they were release, or in #7's case, I was the first one out of Borders with it :-D).  But to me, it's a little harder to love the last ones as much because it's harder to see the love, so to speak.  You can't see where I've broken the spine a little bit from opening it one-handed while eating lunch or breakfast or dinner.  You can't see where the cover accidentally got folded up by one of my textbooks while it was smashed into my backpack.  In other words, you can't really see all the places it's been with me because it doesn't tear as well.

In the end, however, I try to love my books all equally.  However, like I'm sure any dotting grandparent or aunt or uncle does, I have my favorites and they tend to fall into the same category...