Do You Remove Book Jackets?

I'm going on the record right now: I hate book jackets.* These thin paper protectors look pretty in the store, and they help to differentiate books visually. But practically speaking, I can't stand them -- too easy to tear, lose, or crumple! And if there's one thing I hate, it's a torn or crumpled piece of paper.

My friend Lyza recently asked the question of her readers: Do you remove book jackets? She included a survey in her blog entry, and the current winning answer, by a mile, is "Yes, Always." Many commenters (myself included) say how they save the jacket, but during reading, it's outta there. Lyza writes:

I find that, though decorative, book jackets get in the way. They fall off. Or they get squashed or bent, which makes me all tense. Sometimes I do like to use one flap of a book jacket as an ersatz bookmark, tucking it in to mark my page, but that's its only functional purpose, and stops working so well if I'm any good distance into the book. Also, it gives me the clenches when the book I'm reading has a book jacket that is starting to migrate, get out of line, stick up above the edges of my book. Am I just weird? How do you deal with book jackets?

So How About You?

How do you handle book jackets? I encourage you to take Lyza's survey, and let the discussion commence in the comments!

* = Library book jackets are one exception. Covered in protective plastic and physically attached to the book, I actually kinda like them.

(Image from Flickr user delgaudm, used under Creative Commons license.)