3 Comments

1. September 29th, 2010 / 1:06 am Justin RM—

   Many thanks for posting this.

2. September 29th, 2010 / 4:43 am R Ridge—

   Seconded

3. September 30th, 2010 / 6:35 am Owen Kaelin—

   Interesting. Thanks for that, Christopher.

   Me, I’ve never been one of those people who likes to impose marginalia on their books. Partly because I don’t see the point, and partly because I hate reading books that have notes written in them. It’s more than just distracting, it’s like somebody else is pressing their personal interpretations upon me. I can make my own, thank you very much.

   …And since lending books to people is part of the point of having a library… well, I prefer to keep my books clean. Why should other people suffer my stupid notes and my stupid interpretations?

   You know… actually, come to think of it, I’ve never asked anybody before why they write in their books. Maybe I ought to? I don’t know… . It’s not really a question I’d feel comfortable asking.

   But what I dislike more than any of this, of course, is when I lend somebody a book of mine and it comes back with notes written in it. When that happens, I never lend to that person again.