1. A person is obligated to take great care of his holy books and to shake off their dust from time to time, to treat them with great respect, to hold them with respect, to put them away properly in their place and not to treat them with disrespect, G-d forbid, for one who shows a lack of respect for them has shown contempt for the word of Hashem, for they are considered like the clothes of the king, and whoever respects the Torah will receive respect for his own body, and this will cause him to merit the crown of the Torah.
Included in the idea of showing respect for holy books is that one should not write on the page or on the margin any empty things as is the way of children, nor should one lean on the book or put it on the ground etc. The general rule is that one who increases respect for holy books for the respect for heaven, will find that the respect for him will be increased.
How good and pleasant it is to say all prayers and blessings from the book, as this helps one to concentrate on that which one is saying. This applies especially to the prayers of Shabbos, where if one does not pray with closed eyes, one is obligated to look in a prayer-book, and not have his eyes swimming from side to side, for the holy Zohar is extremely stringent about this and it is denigrating, and by this one can recognize if a person is a fool or a man who fears sin.
