I often have a stack of library books sitting on the big subwoofer speaker next to the couch...it is my own little book table. It is where I feel they are most safe from incident but where I know I can always find them since I have been known for reading multiple books at one time
To me, reading has been has been my getaway from the stress that I have been going through the last 9 months. Reading & exercise have been my therapy! So I take care of these treasures when they are in my home. As I sat in my reading chair, drinking coffee this morning reading the current book of choice (from the library), I am so disappointed seeing the pages bent. As I get farther in the book, there were crumbs IN THE BOOK from the previous reader and then some smudges of what I hope is chocolate and it just ticked me off! UGH!
People take care with these books! Seriously what is wrong with people? It's just gross!
What makes it worse is that I don't want the library staff thinking I did this!!! I have plenty of bookmarks laying around my house and have even made some pretty cute ones with my embroidery machine (I should pull them out of my stash).
One of the books that I returned last week, I directly turned in at the front desk. The book was not bound correctly and there were pages coming out. I didn't want them to fall out when I dropped them in the bin. The lady at the desk was very nice and thanked me for being so thoughtful. I also mentioned to her how there was some water damage to the book - it was obvious that a previous reader had been drinking while reading and it smeared the writing. Again, I didn't want them to think that I did that.
What do you do when you see damage inside books that you check out from the library? Do you mention it? Are you a page bender or do you use bookmarks?
Sorry for the little rant...It just irks me seeing books being disrespected.
~Shannon