Friday, November 13, 2009

A Mystery Inside a Mystery

Most of my reading material comes from the public library. I read mostly mysteries and thrillers and maybe a few romances in the mix. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I read romances, but they are my guilty pleasure once in a while.

There is another patron of our local branch whose reading preferences seem much like mine. For some reason, I am assuming that the person is a woman, but I have very little evidence of that. This person always seems to get the good books before me. I know this because he/she has a little habit that drives me bonkers. (I think I'll call the reader “she” so I don't have to type “he/she” every time I mention her.)

She circles words using a ballpoint pen in the books. At first she was circling “God” when it was used as a curse word. I thought maybe she objected to taking the Lord's name in vain. Then she started circling other socially unacceptable words. It seems to me that if she were offended by some words she should forgo reading the books written by authors who use such words. Then she began to circle mistakes that sometimes are missed by spell check like homonyms used incorrectly. She apparently doesn't like dangling participles either. Personally, I hate seeing sentences ending with prepositions, but I don't circle them in ballpoint pen. Now she is circling random, ordinary words. I can't figure out her criteria for picking these seemingly random words and that's what driving me crazy. It's a mystery to me. There is also the fact that she defaces the books by using ink. If she's going to continue this practice, I wish she would use a pencil.

I hope she doesn't start to dog-ear the pages. That would be totally unacceptable. I know, I know. I need to get a life.

5 comments:

Kay Dennison said...

That would gall me, too. I think people who desecrate library books are lower than pond scum in the food change. I think I'd mention it to library staff.

And welcome to the world of Elderbloggers!!!!!!

Kay Dennison said...

And oh yeah, I'm a mystery buff, too!

betty said...

I hate to read a library book that has words circled or notes in the margins. If a reader wants to do that, he/she should just buy the book somewhere and scribble away. I don't think library staffs appreciate customers who do that, either, so I would definitely tell them about it and show them. They will probably put a stop to it. At least I hope so.

Bennigin said...

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA430463.html

Read this article.

Chancy said...

Why anyone would think it is OK to deface a borrowed book is beyond me. And circling words in ink is bad manners to say the least.
Perhaps your librarian would post a notice that says please do not deface these books.

Welcome to Elder Bloogers. I found you via Time Goes By and Ronni Bennett