This is going to be controversial in some circles, but books are not sacred objects unless you want them to be. Dog ear them. Write notes directly in the margins. Highlight, underline, put a sticker in the front. Dip the edges in your bath water, in your beach sand, in your tea. Live with it!

There are thousands of copies of the average book, and if you ever ruined yours you could buy another for $3 off ThriftBooks or something. Unless you are specifically working with rare first edition printings, it’s fine to just treat a book like something that you own. Take it with you everywhere and if you lose or forget it just shrug because it’s really, truly, not a big deal. Love books hard, they are just bundles of paper and the story that you adore is always safe even if you treat your paperback like a doorstop. It’s fine.