Book jackets help resale value, especially if your book is old and rare. I don't save all my book jackets, but I do tend to save them -- and like you am occasionally annoyed by them.

I always remove them, but mostly because my mom does.

I keep them for the sake of resale, but I set the jacket aside when I'm reading the book.

If you want to keep them, buy the thick plastic covers for them and tape the plastic to itself when you cover it. If you make it nice and snug and really make sure you tape the plastic cover to itself (not the book), they will last nicely.

If you don't like the covers then toss them, unless of course they have sentimental or monetary value. I don't see the need to keep them if you don't like them! HTH!

I remove them simply because I love the way books look without them. If I know its something I'm not going to keep I'll set it aside for resale. But thanks to kindle that doesn't happen as much anymore.

A friend of mine used several to "wallpaper" her stairwell. Very interesting and unique!

Yes, for resale value. There are book collectors out there who want the jackets on the book, among other things. The jacket also protects the book and binding from wear and tear and dust.

I do what AngryRedhead does, I keep them and keep the books in them on the shelves, but if I'm currently reading one, I remove it -- especially if I'm carrying the book around with me!

Dust jackets DO help keep books pristine, but the middle ground might be that dust jackets are more useful for some books than for others. I like dust jacket flaps for holding my place when I'm reading - so, very valuable for novels, other books being read in sequence over time. Not so helpful for cookbooks - where (hopefully) multiple pages deserve marking.

i toss them because nearly every book i have has a much prettier look to it, without the cover. that, and excess anything annoys me.

What is this resale value? I mean, how valuable is a used copy of Ludo Bites or The Help? Am I missing out on some huge revenue stream here?

I tend to leave the dust jackets on because I am lazy.

I sure hope by "toss" we mean reuse. The chemicals in old or even new inks or coloring for the book covers might make them hard to recycle. They would make spectacular multimedia art pieces. Although the materials for that......well who knows. Ask your local recycling center or even the library. They may have use for them.

My mother in law had given us the first edition of Where the wild things are by Maurice Sendak with the cover when she sold her house 5 years ago. 2 years old, my now 4 year old ripped the cover of it...the book with the cover values in 10s and thousands right now...so so sad.

Most of my books have jackets. I'm aware they were important for resale but since I buy mainstream books by popular novels, it probably isn't necessary to keep them. Next time I move . . . maybe I'll remember to dispose of them!!

only reason to keep is

1. if you might sell books one day

2. the book without dust jacket looks terrible (some of my cookbooks have this problem)

my daughter started obsessively removing them from all her books at the age of two, and somehow this liberated me. Now I happily peel most books.

Sometimes they are beautiful.

Dust jackets do increase the value of resale. Just in case one is considering books on the sentiment of monetary value.
I usually just take them away after having read the book. I only keep the very appealing dust jackets- that would make very few dust jackets on my shelves. I just appreciate the look of a book subdued and without a jacket. Originally dust jackets were created to safeguard the book from wear and tear. After dust jackets were taken in common use, the habit of gluing a bookplates transformed from gluing the bookplates from upper left corner to the right inner corner, because bookplates would that way be more pleasing to the eye ( by showing off from underneath the dust jacket ) .
I usually glue by bookplates to the very center because that happens to please my eye and incessant need of symmetry. Also, I often buy my books from second hand bookshops and in those cases, I usually remove the dust jackets just because the book underneath it will always be cleaner- and less unknown hands have touched me.
Sometimes I just toss the jackets, if they are appealing I usually make bookmarks of them or even wrap smallish presents in them. If they happen to have an appealing graphic print or whatnot, I sometimes cut the pretty picture off and put them inside the book for keepsake, while I toss the remains of the jacket to the bin.

Personally, I remove mind because most of the time, the books I purchase have a cleaner 'book' cover than the jacket. I like my book covers to be a bit more simple.
I did not realize that with the cover they are much more valuable but I don't have books in that catagory.
Best of luck

Oh my goodness - so many typos! Especially the " less unknown hands have touched me"... screams for instant correction. Of course I meant THE BOOK. Sheesh...
Perhaps one day there could be an "edit"- option for us hasty posters?

Occasionally I'll keep the dust jacket if the cover illustration isn't on the book itself. I do get rid of them once they're all torn up. :)

My Library contains 1294 books, and 1144 are physical books, not ebooks. I cherish each and every one of them that comes with a Dust Jacket. To me, this discussion is a bit like saying, "Heck let's paint out the background of this Mona Lisa piece, because people only care about her smile, no one is looking at the background!" If you're not going to preserve the dust jacket with the book, just buy paperbacks.

I usually keep them to protect the spines from fading in sunlight, & then remove them & leave them as 'placeholders' on the shelf when I'm actually reading the book.
I buy many used books, & the same edition & condition will bring a higher price with an intact dust jacket--so if you resell your books keep that in mind.
If you choose to keep them & they tear you can buy 'book tape' from Scott & others that will not discolor or peel the way regular tape does. It's what libraries use. It also works to reinforce the binding on a paperbackk.

Depends; if you have a collector mentality, more importantly, if you're young; say, twenties, and if by chance, it's a first edition of "The Help".
And then, twenty, thirty, fifty, sixty years from now where technology will actually take printed books or kicked back to the 9th century as some today would have it.

Try this, search on eBay a few classics from say, sixty or fifty years ago and see where any value lies. Chances are, firsts and autographed by the author may be priced more; but again, see if there are any bidders or completed auctions.

Thre's also a chance that there are some poor selling, obscure books out there that are now rare and or, perhaps the authors, if still around, have yet to make any historical or pop cultural notoriety, and then someone might have 'something'.

Save them first, if you like them & feel they won't take up much room to store. Ditch them if you don't have a collector gene or hopefully, a hoarder gene (but then, you wouldn't be asking this. If there's any great $ to be made, odds are, (slim) it'd be for your heirs way down the line.

The few I have, I throw.

I keep the dust jackets on until they annoy me. If I'm using the book enough (reading to toddler, or cookbook) there isn't much resale value anyhow.

I couldn't care less that some of my kid's books would have been worth more if he didn't color on some pages or kept the jacket nice. He's happily enjoying books I ripped the jackets off and colored in--way more valuable to have a kid that likes books than the potential to sell the book (it's only worth the money if you find somebody to buy it anyway).

My book collection is quite fluid, so I keep the jackets (of what few hardcovers I have). That way, when I donate to a charity flea market, people there can read the blurb and so on. If I lend a book to a friend, I keep the dust jacket as a reminder. I also use the flaps as a bookmark.

Chuck 'em - books make much better (functional) design accessories sans their glossy, often banged up coats!

I keep mine because I organize my books by color, and most books are black or white without the jacket.

Keep your dust jackets, they are definitely needed for possible resale (you never know). Find a local used book seller and ask them to "mylar" your books. They'll maybe charge the cost of the material, a dollar a book, tops. "Mylar" is a clear plastic material book dealers put on dust jackets to protect them. It can save an already badly damaged jacket, so it's highly recommended.

Eh, I don't usually save them. When I'm reading a book, the dust cover is such a pain in the neck, always falling off, getting ripped, etc. I can usually see if I have read a book or not by whether it still has the dust cover.
As far as selling/resale value concerns, my old books typically end up 1) "lent" to a friend, 2) sold at a yard sale, or 3) sold in bulk to a local used book shop who pays $1-$2 per paper grocery bag, so I am not terribly concerned with it.
I have elementary aged siblings who like to do collages, so they are happy recipients of the cool artwork and interesting letters.

@ jeffred

I'm with you. I trade my paperbacks (www.paperbackswap.com) but I respect my hardback books and their covers. Many of you who are scoffing at whether or not your books could possibly have any value might be in for a shock. I'm sure the hipster's mother who threw away the old Velvet Underground & Nico 1966 acetate LP didn't know it would be worth more than $25,200 only 40 years later. I have a ton of poetry first editions and even some that are less than 20 years old are rather valuable. Every time someone on AT refers to books as a "design accessory" by stomach flips over.

After my daughter ripped her first dust jacket, I put a clear plastic bin on a high shelf in her closet. All dust jackets went in there. Before I donate a book to her school or library, I check the bin for the matching jacket and reunite them.

To me,the dust jackets help the books slide out easier on my packed shelves,so I keep them.

Everything in your home is an object you should enjoy. If you don't enjoy the cover, get rid of it. I personally prefer the look of a book without its jacket. Even though I've sold many of my things (including books), resale is never something I think about when I bring an object into my home. All I think about is whether I love it and whether it is beautiful and functional.

I tend to keep the dust jackets if the book was a gift; I'm not really worried about resale value because the books I value the most aren't actually the books with much resale value (poetry, Torah commentary, the old paperback of Osip Mandelstam's prose...)

Just recently I took two dust jackets off books that I display which for me was a first. I have no intention of ever reselling them and I doubt they will ever be collectable. I love the look off them sans their little jackets but I do admit that I initially felt terribly guilty and weird about it! And even though I doubt I will ever put the dust jackets back on I put them away in the junk drawer for (relatively) safe keeping.

Wow - would never toss a books dust jacket. I find them annoying when reading, so I remove them, and then replace them when I put the book back on the shelf. For old books, a jacket can more than double its value. I know people who have scanned and printed old jackets to sell to people who own the book without a jacket. Particular illustrators too, can become quite valuable. Books that my Mum bought for me for mere cents from op shops (thrift shops in the US) are now worth hundreds - if they have a dust jacket. Less without the dust jacket. Even though I don't like them, why would I effectively throw out money, just for 5 seconds inconvenience?

Yeah I never thought about tossing a book jacket. I only have on picture books that have gotten torn and the actual book has just as attractive a cover. I love the designs of book jackets esp when the book cover itself is plain.

That's an interesting question. I'm always annoyed by book jackets and doubt I have any collectible books worth the trouble of reselling. I think they look better without. Maybe it's time to quit hanging onto them and recycle!

Ashley Erin Mayer

I keep them all. Well, some years ago I threw away the ratty dust jacket from my first TS Eliot book and I still feel a pang of regret every time I look at the now naked tome.

To keep them from getting ratty and also from annoying me, I remove the dust jacket from the book when I am reading it, and put it back on when I return the book to the shelf.

This is actually unexpectedly useful! I have the bad (?) habit of reading a few books at the same time and having a second visual reminder of one of my books in process can help keep me reading. Or if I am dusting my office and find I am dusting the jacket of Scagboys for the 3rd time, I can ask myself if I am really ever going to finish reading it (the phonetic Scottish vernacular makes for tough bedtime reading if like me you are unused to it!).

If we are keeping the book, the jacket is history. But we are not keepers of much so like many books here, if it becomes a public library donation, we make a point of including its jacket. Our local librarian, a lovely woman who embodies the literary archetype, swoons over books with nice jackets. It is hard to resist pleasing her.

I keep them and would never dream of tossing one.