I can remember numerous times growing up when my mom gave me nameplate stickers for my books. I never lent my books out, so it wasn’t like anyone needed to know who to return them to. (Oh, and I got similar stickers for my CDs.) When the time came for me to get rid of my books, I spent who knows how long trying to peel those stickers off. Either I felt it brought down the value of a book I was trying to sell, or I really didn’t want the next person to know my name or that it used to be my book. Isn’t that sorta creepy to anyone else???

I have one small 3 shelf bookcase of books that I “own”. And these are either reference type books or books I have yet to read. Once I’ve read a book I am usually eager to send it on to the next person to enjoy. I can’t think of a time where I’ve read and re-read a book – even the ones I loved – there are just too many exciting, unread books out there. Besides, who has enough room in their house for all that extra stuff sitting around?

By the way, do you know of any good picture or chapter books about aliens for my 4.5 year old? We just discovered Space Case by Edward Marshall and he can’t get enough.

I also thought that the highlight of the school year was when we wrote our names on the record in the front cover. It was sooooo cool to see who had your book the year before-was it the cool kid or the nerd? And how would your handwriting bestow your legacy? Should you dot your I with a heart or would that look stupid to the kid who got your book next year?

I also don’t understand why resale should figure into writing a name in a book but I plan on keeping the majority of my books forever.

Putting your child’s name on the inside, I don’t get. My mom had this adorable stamp that made it into about half of my sister and my books, and some stickers that hit another 8th or so… But I didn’t understand it as a child, and I really don’t understand it as an adult. I own somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 paperbacks (no, that’s not a typo. one thousand), and only 1, maybe 3 of them have any kind of writing at all in them. It’s either one or three books in a trilogy by Terry Johnston, and they’re autographed by the author. The rest of my books? As immaculate as possible. I do buy used books for myself, and even those I am somewhat picky about, as I hate to see the spine of a book broken, or the corners of the pages turned down, or any of the other ways that books can be injured. I couldn’t even bring myself to highlight or notate my college textbooks for classes I knew I wasn’t selling back.

Now, on another level of not understanding, I also don’t get rid of books (hence the thousand paperbacks in my library). I keep and re-read almost every book that I buy. My parents are the same way, although their collection numbers nearly five thousand. So, packed in boxes in their attic, waiting for my daughter to be old enough to track even the most basic story, are nearly every book my sister and I had as children: Dr. Suess books, Little Bear, Little Golden books, Serendipity books, Berenstain Bears, Little Monster, and a huge list of other picture books… Plus a huge collection of chapter books, although some of those are still residing on my shelves. The only exception to that are the few books my sister or I damaged enough to make them illegible. It did happen, although mom did her best to prevent it. Those books will soon be seeing new life for my daughter (and future child), as well as my sister’s future children.

On a related note, my parents have one of the embossing tools that stamps “Library of…” from #7. They also had gold seals made using the same design. We’re currently seeing the seals laying all over the floor of my parents house, since they’re finally getting all the books unpacked after a move, and the adhesive on the seals isn’t very good after 20 years. Nearly every time you move a stack of books, at least one falls out. It’s really kind of funny, as I ask mom what she was thinking, and she always says she doesn’t know. She gave up on trying to emboss or sticker her books 17-18 years ago, when the collection starting getting too large to keep up with.