"There is no friend as loyal as a book"

At the moment I have a very large pile of books I have to make my way through. I find it funny how at certain times you have mountains of books to read and at other times, even the library seems to only have books you have already read.

It is wonderful lending books from friends and family that are happy for you to keep them for as long as it takes to make your way through cover to cover. (And you don't have to choose which book you should leave behind.)
The only problem I have is wanting to read too many books. So I can, when I have found my reading groove, have as many as five books on the go at once.

Personally I use the page numbers to remember where I am up to, though if I am being distracted when I commence reading I might find a bit of paper or string, (I have used feathers on several occasions) to mark my place. Though what I cannot stand is people who turn and fold over the corner of a page. (Dog tag) Or when books are put face down with pages apart smooshed onto the closest surface and left there, to some inhumane injury of a broken spine. It should be punishable by death, such a crime!!!

Earnest Hemingway wrote, "There is no friend as loyal as a book".
And I guess that is how I like to treat my books, because within each covering I find characters that I would never have known. I get to see a life through different eyes, but then still have the option of having my own thoughts on the matter as well.