Writing on library books...

Flamed Diving

do you do it? If so, why? I consider it a very selfish act to commit, personally. What are peoples thoughts on it?

Secondly, to the people who do write on books, why do you underline so much text? I have a book before me that must have about 40% of its text highlighted (by the same marker), is there any point?

Discuss.

brianthebard

Some people think the more you highlight or note the better. I'm not too bothered by writing on library books any more except when people change the text, which doesn't happen too often in fairness.

convert

It can be quite annoying to have huge quantities of text highlighted or underlined, especially when it's badly done, which makes it difficult to read the text, especially if photocopied.

If you really need to highlight/mark important sentences or paragraphs, then buy the really small post-its and place them on the page beside/on the paragraph in question. It'll also mean it's much easier to find the page in question so no need for 'dog eared' pages!

Ostrom

Spent an hour looking for an article - couldn't remember the citation so I went through a good few print volumes. When I found it, it was covered (about 80%) in thirty years of underlining, highlighter, and notes. Impossible to copy and too frustrating to read - anyone who lays pen to a public resource should be pitch capped and piked.

El Siglo

I don't like it at all, I've accidentally underlined a word alright but I'd never go through paragraphs with highlighters or pens, it's just vandalism. I remember some history or old geography books I read, there was some pretty funny anecdotes on the back covers, but these were the exception.

Red Alert

Personally I think people shouldn't write on books they don't own.

livinginkorea

Never done it. Personally if there was a page or article in a book that I deemed very important then I would just photocopy it and underline/highlight the copy. Can't understand why people want to ruin books for others, especially their classmates who would probably use that same book at some point.

Also the highlighting can be distracting because sometimes the previous reader marked too much or highlighted the wrong definition/analysis etc not relevant to my study. Very annoying.

Flamed Diving

It's like some kind of compulsion for them. I have often run into something like:

'Economics is the study of how economies behave.'

Well, duhhhh.

I think it is bad manners, but a lot of the time I find the underlining and notes quite helpful, saves me doing it myself.

claire h

There is a special circle of hell reserved for people who highlight library books.

Leonid

Very annoying. My theory on why people do this, is that to them it is a form of escapism. They convince themselves that they are browsing a fun, non-challenging colouring book.