I was planning on writing this edition–previous editions here–of pet peeves on umbrellas and the people that use them. They have really been pissing me off lately, but you will have to wait until the next edition for that one. Today I frequented my local library to pick up some extra books for my research paper, and my ire over umbrellas has been superseded by my fury at the assholes who deface library books.
What? Am I serious? Yes I am. Maybe it is because I am a nerd who likes to read, research, write, and all those things, or maybe it is because I respect public property. You see library books belong to us all. They are free of charge, and allow anyone to access knowledge to better themselves. That’s the great thing about libraries. The knowledge that resides inside them is accessible to anyone no matter what your educational or social standing may be. The problem is that that only works if people respect the books, and treat them accordingly. I can’t tell you how much this pisses me off, and it’s more than just writing juvenile words, like dick, or drawing inappropriate pictures, like dicks, inside books, and then laughing to your friends about how cool you are (seriously what is it with dicks that people feel compelled to write it or draw them everywhere). Beyond being an idiot and writing or drawing those things in books there is another aspect of defacement. Let me show you what I mean. Here is a book I had to check out today on Alexander Hamilton, and American Foreign Policy.
These are three separate random pages pulled from a book that is covered front-to-back with similarly marked pages. So what’s wrong with this? Obviously the person thought that the information in the book was important and they marked it accordingly, right? No and No. It’s completely wrong, and now I’m going to give you all a short succinct primer on how books should be marked. There is a standard decorum that should be followed by everyone who uses library books, and especially rare books and documents.
First off do not use pen–or any permanent marking instrument–when you are marking books, ever. Now if you own the book I guess it’s ok, but even then I’d advise against it. In case you forgot pens are permanent, and as such, permanently stain the books. If you are going to make marks in a book use a pencil, and make light marks so that they can be erased. This becomes even more important when marking in rare books and documents. Let me repeat that again: DO NOT USE PENS. Pens are evil, and should never be used. This rule applies to any marking tool that is permanent including highlighters. Please stop using highlighters in books–especially the pink and blue ones.
Secondly, this douche-bag has decided to use a wide array of marks to connote the usefulness of a passage. Let’s see, we have circles, ovals, underlines, strikethroughs, random rune looking characters, arcs, and probably even more that I missed. This is all completely unnecessary. I’m assuming that most, if not all, of the information in this book is important. What you want to do is connote which information is applicable to your particular topic or argument. To do this you do not need to make all kinds of crazy marks in the book. It doesn’t make you look any smarter if you have all this crap all over the pages. In fact, it makes it harder for anyone else to use the book after you making you look like a simpleton. So what do you do then. Well using a pencil you want to either lightly make small brackets around useful passages or lightly underline a specific sentence or phrase. If it’s an important passage don’t underline the whole thing, even if you are using a pencil, that’s where the brackets come in. That’s it. It’s even acceptable to jot down a quick note in the margin, once again, in pencil. That’s all you need to do. If you find that you can’t do your research or reading without all the crazy, extravagant marks, then grab a note book. Then you can use a notebook while you are reading to write down page numbers, and anything else you need to write down to help you assimilate the information.
Lastly, these books are not work books, and deserve better than to be marked up like this. I particularly don’t get the strikethroughs or crossing out entire words or sentences–something that I have seen way too much of lately. If a sentence isn’t helpful or pertinent to you then don’t blight it from existence, because someone else might find it useful. There is absolutely no need to ever scribble out words, phrases, and paragraphs. Just don’t do it. If you feel that you can’t abide by these rules, then don’t use the library, and go buy all your books, but don’t ruin it for those of us who need these books.
To sum up all the rules:
Do not under any circumstances use pens, highlighters, markers, or any other permanent marking instrument.
Do not extravagantly mark up the books. Less is more.
Do not blight out words, phrases, and paragraphs.
Use pencils only, and mark lightly. Let me repeat that again, just in case you are slow,
USE PENCILS ONLY AND MARK LIGHTLY.
There you go, now you know all you need to know to correctly mark in books.
Thus endeth the lesson.
