There’s nothing better than buying a fresh, new book at Barnes & Noble. You’re the first to touch and turn the white, crisp pages. You’re also the first to create a crease in it. Although the book may have cost you a good amount of money out of your pocket, it’s worth it. You now have ownership of that book and can treat it the way you want. As soon as that book is yours, it’s already under the used category.

But what do you do with a used a book after you’ve finished reading beginning to end? What do you do with it after you’ve looked over the table of contents or epilogue?

People are so quick today to judge what’s been used. Whether it’s a car at a sketchy dealership, clothes at a thrift shop, or even an air mattress from Goodwill, judgment is always made to what has been used, especially with books.

I find an old, used book just as good as a new one sitting on a shelf at Books-A-Million. I can understand why someone would enjoy a new book over an old one, but I can also understand why someone would hate to have annotations and a few ripped pages in a book. In my situation, I find any book a good book. I don’t mind buying a used book at a thrift shop or picking up free books outside of a bookstore downtown. A book is a book, there shouldn’t be any discrimination.

I enjoy the imperfections a used book comes with. I enjoy the notes my dad left in his bible when he handed it down to me. I enjoy the brown, tinted pages after years of being used. I enjoy the cloud shaped coffee stain I left in my devotion book. I enjoy these imperfections because they add character to what was once an object collecting dust on a shelf in any store.

The little ragged edges and creased pages show what the book has been through. It shows that someone actually went through the book and used it. It shows another person’s feelings towards the book. The crease at the corner of the page shows where that person stopped. If they made a whole bunch of page creases, they probably had small reading sessions. If they maybe made five or six page creases, they probably found the book interesting and didn’t stop as much. The quirks of a used book are what brings it alive. A book can’t be alive until it’s been through something.

A ripped page shouldn’t be the reason for not buying a used book. Books should be meant for reading, not for appearance purposes. The more character the book has, the more it’s been through. It’s the ragged edges and missing pages that make a book, a book. While the book contains an actual story written on the pages, the character and condition of the book itself also has a story.