How do you hold your books open?

[zeroradius]

When you first start on a book before it gets the weight of read pages to hold it open they tend to shut by themselves. This is particularly problematic on programming books as it may have you build a program using code from the book as a hands on approach. I hold mine open like this:


As you can see this is not the best way of performing this task as it requires you to reset the clip when time to turn the page. A book mark isn't much help here because you would have to open it every time rather than just glancing over when you get stuck.

I tried a wedge and it failed.

Any one have a better solution to this problem?

[BlaineSch]

This is why I like hardcovers lol they like to stay open even in the beginning. But almost none of my books are hardcovers...

[zeroradius]

I like hardcovers to but most programming books i find are soft cover, and my favorite series is the head first programming books and they don't even make hardcover for those -_-

EDIT: I just figured out a much better solution. I took a paper clip and bent it like > and wedged it in the page so one tip is in towrd the binding and the other stops the page shutting just enough for gravity to hold it open properly ^_^ ..... hmmm I wonder if that will reduce the life of the binding sense paperbacks are usually bound by glue ..... probably will ..... back to the drawling board >.<

[Hignar]

There are book stands available. Maybe a bit overkill for your purposes but they'd do the job. You see them a look in kitchen shops as people use them for recipe books.

Something like this would do the job


I used to have something similar but I've no idea where it is now.

I try to buy ebooks for programming when possible which is one reason why I like O'reilly books.

[zeroradius]

that would be great for my room but not so much for when I'm out places. Still I may have to buy one of those when I get some cash.

I try not to use ebooks to often. I use the computer to much as it is, I need something better for the eyes (i already can't see any of the letters on the chart and my eyes get worse every year), that would be a good rout if I had something like the Sony e-reader sense it is suppose to make the pages look more like a regular book for eye health.

oh and turns out the paperclip isn't such a good idea. I bumped my book and it shot out like a spring, would have hit my eye if my glasses weren't on.

[WingedPanther]

I have a tendency to simply crack the spine until it cooperates.

[Jordan]

I lay something heavy like a paperweight on the page to hold it down. If the book isn't in the best condition I'll crack the spine. I've seen rubber things at "beach" stores which are suppose to keep them open from the wind on the beach. Not sure what they are called and not sure if that would help you. I found this on Amazon for $4.99 "Weighted Bookmark":

[zeroradius]

(0.0) I don't think i want to crack my books spine. I love books and I would like them to last as long as possible. Jordan's way would be good if i could find something smaller than what i rigged up to simulate it. What I set up is blocking the top text of the page. hmm, guess ill stick with my waited gator clip for now.

[debtboy]

I have a tendency to simply crack the spine until it cooperates.

OOOOOuch

[Guest]

Instead of cracking the spine, I just bend the pages back around the spine. Then my book stays open no problem. I don't know where my camera is right now, so here is a crappy picture I made in Gimp: