I hate it when people scribble on books. In my opinion it’s the second worst thing that could happen to a book, first being the book not being read.
I especially hate it when it happens to my books. I recently lent my favourite book to a friend. This book was first published in 1940s and belonged to my great grandmother who gave to my grandmother, who in turn passed it on to me. This book is incredibly special to me and now is covered in scribbles. They even put sticky notes in some of the pages. How do I know? There’s still some residue left over. They tried to erase some scribbles but didn’t do a good job of it and left creases on the pages. Maybe I’m overreacting but I have always been explicitly clear that if I lend you a book, I expect it to be given back in the same condition I gave it in.
Edit: I have to apologise for the way I came on in this post, I was extremely upset about my own book. Kinda came to terms over it last night. You do you, keep your books the way you wish.
by mykawakawski
32 Comments
I always have my copy and a leading copy of my favourite books! 🙈
I have one friend that does all sorts of unspeakable horrors to books (turning corners, breaking spines, laying them open face down etc.)
I tell her that my books talk about her to each other round the camp fire… 😂
The only person I borrow books to is my mum. We treat them the same and we live together lol.
If it’s your own book scribble away, if not, how dare you? That was very rude of them and I wouldn’t lend them anything in the future.
You should bring it up. Even if you’d bought it a month ago it would be valid let alone a book with sentimental value.
I think that if someone is borrowing a book from another person, then they shouldn’t scribble in said person’s book. Or that they should take care of said person’s book in general, as it is someone else’s property, and it’s not polite to ruin someone else’s belongings.
I am unsure on why your friend couldn’t grab a bit of paper and write things down on that. But I am sorry that they did to your book, I hope they apologised, if you talked to them about it, that is.
What sort of book was it that requires scribbles in it?
I love scribbling in books. I think a book should show signs of being read. I like bent pages, annotations, and covers that are falling apart.
However, I would never do that to someone else book, even if they told me it was okay. That’s not disrespect for the book, but disrespect for you. It’s also wild that they would mark up a book from the 40s that was in good condition.
I only ever wrote in Cookbooks for my notes in recipes, but on some books I’ve started to as well. I, too, thought it was sacrilegious until I saw a roommate of mine have so many notes it seemed like she was having a conversation with the book. It felt like she had immersed herself in what she had been reading far more than I. I keep all my books so I figured it would be kind of interesting to have conversations with my books as well.
Other people’s books, no way.
My books, I am allowed to mark up in any way I want to. I was too fixed mindset for far too long by *not* writing in my books. I had a toxic, self righteous mindset that I was better than others by *not* writing in my books, so dumb. Now I’m like, it’s your book, do what you want with it. No judgement. Now I find it interesting to reread a book I’ve taken notes in to better see how I’ve changed since the last time I read the book. The book is the same, but I’m different.
I have a ‘no lend’ policy, having been burned too many times in the past. If I’d dying to share a book with someone special, I might buy them a copy, but I no longer lend books. To ***any*** one.
Learn this phrase: “I’m sorry, but I don’t lend books.’ – Your life will be happier, I promise. And learn to ignore the ‘Oh, but I’ll look after it, I promise’. It’s a lie – they are usually the worst.
What book was it? That is a very odd and rude thing to do to someone else’s sentimental property, I would bring this up with your friend.
I believe I can do whatever I want to my own property, but people should **never scribble on loan books**.
Some people treat books like magazines. Especially because it is old, they think it has no value. They didn’t mean it, just never loan them again. But I’m upset with people who treat other people’s things like trash but are extremely careful with their own. These people are selfish.
I have had experiences in my youth when people were doing tiny selfish things, I let it go or pretended I didn’t notice. In middle-age, they have all turned into a-holes. They are self-centered, always been. Never mind the book, there are worse things to come.
If this book is so important to you. You can try getting it restored. It costs about $150-$300 depending on the severity. Get a quote. If you can’t afford it, the restorer might be able to give you advice to DIY. They are helpful people, they are not in it for the money. So sorry for what happened.
Your friend is just incredibly rude. You don’t do that to any book, let alone to a book that old.
I used to highlight interesting phrases and idioms and put translations next to words I didn’t know when I first started reading English language books ~~and I only did it to those I actually owned~~
What a shit fried you have. I would be fuming if that happened to me. I don’t find it objectionable to write in books if it is your OWN. It is downright disrespectful to do it to other people property.
Honestly it’s messed up if they scribble on a book you lent. Even if you lend someone a textbook they shouldn’t scribble on it at all. Scribbling should be a privilege that belongs solely to the books owner and the author of the book. Perhaps an exception can be made for an expert adding notes about the subject but even that is pushing it.
Perhaps they realize it’s the only lasting impact they’re going to have.
This is a reason I no longer lend books to anyone. I’ll happily give recommendations, or give books as gifts, but I’ll never lend my own books.
I can’t imagine returning someone else’s property in worse condition than you received it like that. Write in your own books all you like, but never someone else’s!
I get that some people don’t value books, and think that because it’s paper, like a magazine, it’s disposable/not valuable, and that therefore it doesn’t matter. (Heretics! lol.) But if it’s not their book, then it’s not for them to decide. It’s about treating other peoples’ possessions with respect.
When I was 16, there was a book we studied in English class for our exams. We were told we would need a clean, un-annotated copy for the exam (we wrote notes on the pages in class). One class, someone else forgot their copy of the book; I happened to have my “clean” copy with me as well as my noted copy, and so I loaned them my clean copy for the class.
They wrote notes in it. **In pen.** Not a lot, just a couple of short sentences over a few pages, but I was not happy. I was also paranoid that my “clean” book would be checked in the exam (they could be, according to the rules), and that I would get in trouble for cheating, which could fail me the whole exam/course. (*Kind of* unlikely to happen, but still possible.)
Not on someone else’s book, I make notes in nonfiction books to expand on things said or link to other works (maybe definitions too). Sticky notes in bigger books for easy location.
Defacing someone else’s property is different to that of course
Why not? Its my property, for my use, and *its slow destruction is part of its beauty*.
I developed this philosophy from beaten books of others to lessen my compulsive desire for perfection.
Someone else’s property: no writing, no earmarks, its not mine.
Well. That would be an EX-friend. After I punched them in the face. (Jk)
I wouldn’t lend out family herilooms that aren’t replaceable. I scribble a bit in some of my own books, but would never do that to someone elses books. I only lend out books that are easily replaceable.
I’m an author. Once, at a reading, a reader handed me her book to sign and I noticed that stickie notes were protruding from the pages. I flipped through and there was scribbling and notes throughout the whole thing. I wished that I could have sat with her and her copy for hours to talk about what she wrote.
I got some good reviews in major newspapers for my book, but those scribbles may have been the highest compliment I ever received. They meant the reader was thinking deeply about what I wrote.
you could always remember the fact that if the book survives a thousand years, or even a couple hundred it will be considered *far* more valuable to historians and collectors because someone wrote in it.
I’m a rare book librarian…and a monster. I encourage people to write in their books. Not books you don’t own mind you. But it provides really interesting reader perspectives in books. Marginalia is interesting. Don’t be so sacrosanct about books, enjoy them, eat them up until they are broken and battered.
When people do that to your property or public property it’s unacceptable. Their own property, eh.
That said I know the London Library just found a Victorian era biography of Vlad Tepes with hand written notes in the margins put there by Bram Stoker while he was doing research while writing Dracula. So it can have historical benefits.
Dont lend sentimenal objects
Mark up your own books as you see fit. Someone else’s book? That’s like borrowing someone’s car and returning it with scratches in the paint and drinks spilled in the driver’s seat. Should never happen.
Lesson: Never loan out something you have an emotional attachment to and can’t replace.
I stopped loaning books to people, after I kept never getting them back. If someone wants to read one of my books, I just buy them a copy and give it to them. You can get used copies of most of your favorite books for pretty cheap.
My partner ‘corrects’ books and it drives me mad. It’s not just misprints, we have a copy of The Little Snake where she’s crossed out the word ‘blinked’ and written ‘snakes do not blink’. Fortunately she resists the urge to do it with my books.
I love to annotate my books, but I would never do it to other people’s books, and I get so mad when people do it to library books. Not cool! A borrowed books? I can’t even imagine doing that.
As for why I do it with my own books, well, I love annotating because it helps me focus, and it lets me record my conversation with the text. It also makes rereading even more enjoyable. Marginalia is a sign of my loving and ongoing relationship with a book.
If it’s someone else’s book, of course not.
If it’s my book- I really couldn’t care less. If I find an interesting word, or something that strikes me, I’ll highlight it. I actually find I read way more this way.
I bought the book to enrich my life, so whatever way does it goes. I honestly couldn’t care less about my books feelings on the matter.
If an irreplaceable 80yo book was that important to me I would never have lent it out in the first place.
It’s a very odd thing to do to someone else’s book.
In my experience it happens a lot to university books. You can tell people were assigned the book and have made all sorts of notes for or from class. One of the funniest things I’ve seen was in my university’s copy of *Pnin* by Nabokov a previous reader had underlined the word “phallic” and then written in the margin “phallus.” What an observation! Hilariously chapter 6 starts thus:
>Again in the margins of library books earnest freshmen inscribed such helpful glosses as “Description of nature,” or “Irony”.
I wouldn’t do it to anyone’s books but my own. My father, a presbyterian minister, wrote his ideas, questions, comments, concerns on the page margins of all his Bibles. 50 years ago when he died, I was 17and inherited most of his library. Reading where he read, reading all his scribbles, gave me a unique look into his mind. I cherish those notes. I’m hopeful that when I turn over to my grandchildren all my close to my heart books, with my thoughts, they will someday take the time to be curious about grandpa.