Do you mark your books?

[PapersAndPaychecks]

I gave the 1e DMG an A, Unearthed Arcana a D plus, and Manual of the Planes was a See Me After Class.

 

[Super Pony]

I don't mark up books that I feel are collectable or sacrosanct. Obvious candidates are known limited printings, special editions, and other items marketed as "going once." But Super Pony, how can you tell if a regular book is going to be collectible or precious at the outset!? Are you a wizard!? What about the Book of Erotic Fantasy?! No my dears...I am no clairvoyant magician. I am simply one of the reasons that game books become collectable and people make decent money selling said books. I am a full fledged member of the "Presently Destructive Order of Nostalgic Hindsight Book Protectors, Inc." It's a gnomish guild...

Basically this means my library goes through the /facepalm cycle of:

* Buy new shiney book and use it brother...I mean... annotations, throw it at people, wrestle it away from the dog, dogear pages, show up too late to keep my child from "coloring" it, overuse and overstress the spine, leave it in a humid bathroom, inflict it with taped together pages, etc. (This process takes a couple years but typically books I use regularly get battle scars).

* Retire/Gift/Recycle the wounded soldier (usually when a new game I like comes out, a new edition or whatever reason causes me to move along to new games)

* Get bit by the nostalgia bug whilst remeniscing about the 'good times' we had in that old game. I hit my local game stores (Portland is blessed to have several good ones with extensive 'archives') and only occaisionally browse the interwebs.

* I then locate a good or better condition copy of the book (if I can locate a copy in the same print run as the original all the better). I use my powers of financial obfuscation (also known as saving my discretionary monies...yes I'm in my thirties and have an allowance). Then I acquire the object of my desire.

* Finally this rebirthed tome is carefully placed in my library in the study where it twinkles like a gem and is only occaisionally called into active duty.

 

[jasper]

I rub them under my armpits to get my scent on them.
Name in them, occasionaly on the top and bottom of the spine. Errant handwritten in ink or glued over paragraph or glued to back cover page. tabs for breaks in character classes or spells.
When I lend out my ficition books my name goes in them and I still have fiction books develop legs.

 

[malcolypse]

They at least get initials in the front cover. These books get piled on a table with many similar titles, and telling them apart can become important.


Back in the 3.0 days a friend announced the start of a new campaign. The books had all been stored in his dorm room, so we all have access to every book we needed. Many other books were there as well, since it's easier to just bring a pile of books than organize a bunch of disorganized nerds to get one of each there.

A second gaming buddy sits down to decide what he wanted to play, and was calmly thumbing through the classes, when suddenly and without warning he puked on the rogue entry.

Three voices chorused: "That was (different PHB owners name here) copy."
I said: "My copy has my initials in the front cover."

It was not my copy.

The friend was very apologetic.

 

[Oryan77]

I never mark in my books. I don't even like when I accidentally draw a line on a page with my pencil even though I erase it. But I tend to take extremely good care of my things because I like them to last as long as they can, and I enjoy handling a book that is in nice condition more than a book that looks like a piece of trash.

When I'm buying old books (like 1e adventures I don't have), I don't mind if it is in bad condition. The pages can have tears and be scuffed from normal wear and tear and I don't mind at all as long as I can read it. But if there is any kind of writing or highlighting in it, I don't want it. It doesn't feel like it is actually mine when I see a strangers name and writing in it.

The worst was when I bought a collection of books from a woman and she had 4"x4" labels glued to the inside cover of each (done with a glue stick) and her name was written on them. I didn't realize it when I bought them. I managed to peel some of them off ok, but most of them looked disgusting. I ended up reselling most of them on Amazon.

 

[Redshirt]

Never, ever, no way.

I do have a bad habit of using the bigger hard cover books as a writing base, so they have barely visible lines and shadow text crisscrossing them, but no markings on the inside.

The cover of my 1e PHB feels like a golf ball because I've used it as a writing table so much.

 

[Blacky the Blackball]

I don't normally mark my books.

But I once shared a house with a guy who - to avoid confusion about which books were mine and which were his - wrote my name in my books (without asking first)...

I wasn't best pleased.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I have put a post-it in a book once or twice, but I've never even considered using any kind of writing utensil on one. And I don't use post-its now.

 

[The Shaman]

I don't know why I wouldn't mark my books. They're working books, not collectors items.

I highlight, annotate with margin notes, and illustrate with diagrams the pages of my gaming books.

 

[The Shaman]

No, but I used to treat my 1e books like coloring books.

And now I'm wondering why I never did this! That sounds like fun.