Those Who Mark in Library Books

Why? WHY? WHY?!

I am working on a story where I need to find the perfect poem, and so I checked out a bunch of poetry books from the library.

The first book I went through was The Complete Works of Emily Dickinson (the one published in 1960). Many pages were marked on in pencil with checkmarks, brackets, or even the number of syllables of each line of poetry. The index has lines drawn in places for no apparent reason. One poem (number 8, "There is a word", if you happen to care) was marked OVER and in PEN, as though the scumbag presumed to EDIT Emily Dickinson's work! I actually screamed when I saw it!

Not only that, the book was stained in red kool-aid, many pages were creased where the corners were folded, and there was even one instance where the corner was almost complete torn off! WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING?

Then, I went on to Maya Angelou, finding the same checkmarks and, once, an asterisk. For some reason, that asterisk annoyed me most of all.

*AHEM* So, you see, I am upset. I really take offense when people treat books poorly, especially if it's one they do not own. I just had to vent.

It's also annoying...

but I mark in some of my books. Like in Waugh, when I find something funny. I marked up Vile Bodies.

Library books you have to fight with. If the library hasn't pitched those, they're too cheep to by new copies. I've started hating libraries, I just buy my books now...

Claudette wrote:It's also annoying...

but I mark in some of my books. Like in Waugh, when I find something funny. I marked up Vile Bodies.

Library books you have to fight with. If the library hasn't pitched those, they're too cheep to by new copies. I've started hating libraries, I just buy my books now...

I couldn't hate a library. It's my natural habitat, and my mother's before me.

I am at the library all the time! Its air conditioned, has a nice collection of Jane Austin, and a YA room with computers. They're also very friendly and are good about keeping the books mark free. *hugs library and library director* I'm friends with the library directior and I can get him to order books.

I've never seen marks in library books actually but then the local library and school library check the books when you return them so I suppose that discourages such people. I've only actually sat and worked in the library a couple of times like when the computer at home has been down and I've taken advantage of my daily free hour to use theirs or once r twice when Claire has wanted a companion to work with. I love the library though. I love to borrow books and walk around in the older sections where they keep the reference books and skim through them. There's a certain pleasure in reading a book that is so close to an original that they don't want you to remove it from undr their watchful eye.

Oh I know what you mean!
Some old books take out the rest of a swear word, like so: D―
And someone had the gall to write the rest of the word in it. Not to mention dog-eared pages and the like!
But I must admit, I still love the library. I just don't like disrespectful people.

I don't know, perhaps my local library hates me? There is one library there who treats me poorly They sell books on occasion, for very cheep, I love it.

They don't have a large enough selection for me, or all their Russian translations are muddy to read through. Like I said, I so much more prefer to buy the books, then they're mine!

The oldest book I own is Seven French Novels, 1943. It smells so good.

Oh, and I'm moving this to Fiction tips and discussion xD I think it fits there...

I actually got a book with a burn mark in it, once.

Heh, I'm guilty of the dogearing thing, but it does bug me when people mark in the books. The sight of clean, fresh pages is a feast to my eyes - that's why I like to buy second copies of books I have annotated in. That way I can read them again without being distracted by my annotations.

I like libraries, but my library doesn't have a lot of the books I am looking for, so that is frustrating. Grar. And I hate the condition some books are in - it's sad. Still, it's useful for trying brand new authors...

I think if you're going to mark in a book, it had better be yours. I like writing in my books, though it's a little distracting the next time you read it.

I bought a used book on the internet and there were all these... pen markings on it. It drove me crazy! This time when I bought something on Amazon, I made sure that the sellers said that there were no markings.

But seriously. There was only this one time I actually liked when the book was marked up. It was my first copy of "The Screwtape Letters" and in the margins, there were Chinese characters. I have no idea what they meant, but hey! Cool!

Still... textbooks are okay to mark up but please PLEASE not fun books!

I hate it when you get books from the library that look like someone's dropped their dinner-or worse on some of the pages.

My library's collection are pretty horrendous. I mean I was halfway through a book once when I turned the page and realised that four pages were missing!!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!!

The last book I had from the library someone had scribbled names inside it. I mean, if your going to do that get a piece of paper! what's the point of ruining a book that isn't even yours????

/End rant.

Alainna
xxxxxxx

I don't like getting libary books out, and then finding that they're encrusted with unknown lumps of dirt, that always scares me and makes it even worse. I stopped using the libary because of that, and that they hate me there, I owe them a lot of money XD

I usually doodle in my text-books, it help me remember things, but I could never do it to fiction, it would feel too wrong. My sister's guily of mis-treating books, mostly the ones that I lend her. I once made her buy me a new copy of something, she'd mashed up mine so badly.

And, of course, this makes me think of a poem: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/marginalia/[/url]

Oh, I ruin library books all the time.

Burn em, soak 'em in water, squash the binding,

and my favorite thing to do is rip out the pages that are most important--the ones where major plot twists happen--so reading it again would be hell