Oh, another point.
When you loan your books to ME, and I don’t give them back, and I open them up and see your name in there, I get a vague feeling of guilt.
I’m looking right now into a hardcover copy of Eliot’s COLLECTED POEMS that has “John Hill, 1045 Saybrook” scrawled at the top of the card page, and feeling sorta bad that I never gave it back.
The feeling will pass shortly. But why make me suffer even that little twinge of unhappiness?
Ukulele Ike, I’m with you on this one. I never inscribe my name in a book because I never know how much someone else might pay for it in the future.
I also keep them in pristine condition because of that possibility. If it’s a hardback, I remove the dust cover when reading the book and keep it in a separate place. If it’s a paperback, I’m careful not to open it all the way so as not to crease the spine.
Paperbacks? Nah.
But those Programming/Reference books on my desk &/or bookshelf at work? Damnbetcha! I paid heavy for some of those babies.
And I generally don’t loan hardbounds. If I wanted it enough to buy the hardbound edition, I want to keep it. I can’t remember anyone ever actually returning a book they ‘borrowed’ from me without considerable ‘coaxing’ from me.
Incidentally, I occasionally buy old books at garage sales, etc. and always find it interesting to read inside that so-and-so presented it to so-and-so in 1879, or whenever. I never thought about it affecting the value. In fact, I’ve never thought much about the value of my old books period. To me their value is in their being books, not their age. Is there someplace one can look up a book’s value? Maybe some of these tomes shouldn’t be left laying about on my shelves?
Type a few of your titles into here:
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/IList
It won’t tell you what you copy’s worth, but will give you some idea of what the market will bear.
I don’t generally write my name in books that I purchase for myself, unless the purchase was made with a gift certificate to a bookstore. In my family, though, for books given as gifts, we write the date/occasion it was given for, as well as the name of the giver and givee. Is that last a real word?
About buying used books with names already in them, if the book is in good shape I don’t mind. I bought a copy of the works of Longfellow for my mother and the book was over a hundred years old, but in great shape. What seemed to be the name of, if not the first owner, then a very early one, was penned inside the cover. We both felt it gave the volume more character.
I don’t write my name in my books, I just don’t feel like my handwriting is good enough. I also have this problem of buying beautiful notebooks, thinking I might journal in them, and then leaving them blank because I don’t want to mar them with my terrible handwriting. All my journals are in cheap spiral notebooks because of this.
I do love it when people buy me books and write a little inscription in them. In fact, I feel like a bit of an ass saying this, but now that we have Amazon.com, most of the book gifts I get come from them, and I can’t help but feel a little sad that they are not signed by the giver (since the giver never touches them). I’ve thought about forging my own little inscriptions from my friends in them, but then we’re back to my ugly handwriting…
No, never. I like to keep my books as pristine as possible for as long as possible. And I’m female.
Thanks Uke
I wasn’t planning on selling any of them anyway.
I was just wondering if I should take any extraordinary measures to protect them.
God no!
But if you must, do it lightly in pencil.
Someone writing their name in a book can easily knock the value of a book to near nothing. On a more common first edition, being pristine is going to become very important. And a name from the 1800s may be more interesting than a name from 1997 but it is no less damaging to the books value.
Unless that name is a famous one or otherwise important it is of no value. If you have an author sign your book never have him write anything to you, just get the author’s name signed.
Obviously the odds of buying a book that is going to become real valuable someday is small, but why do around guaranteeing you won’t?
Another XX here. I do write my name in all my books. I come from a large book-happy family with similar interests and I don’t want my copies getting mixed up with others. (Yes it does make a difference. :)) On the other hand, being brought up with a profound respect for the printed word, it was many years before I could bring myself to make a mark inside a book. Now I can’t help but correct typos as I go along. And is it just me, or are there more mistakes in printings now than there used to be?
[sub]This is purely personal but I really hate highlighters.[/sub]
Ah, but I don’t care about the future value of a bok! I buy books to read them and share them. So if I enjoyed it, and I want to share it, I still want it to come back to me. Even paperbacks, which people claim are replaceable, aren’t always. They go out of print, too, and sometimes I don’t remember the name or author. But if I still have it, I can always go back and read it again.
(Now if I can just remember to whom I loaned my copy of that fantasy novel–what was its name? who wrote it? Aw, hell…)
Oops, future value of a book…
I’d just like to point out that I have no interest in the future value of my books. I figure the chance of me getting a copy that’ll be valuable someday is pretty small. I just like my stuff to be in perfect condition. Or as close as possible given that I’ll actually read the book.
I never write my name in books. The only time I ever did was my freshman year of college, ‘cuz I was afraid my textbooks might get lost or stolen. They never were, so I quit with the name writin’. I rarely ever lend books out, and when I do I can usually remember who has it, and I keep on their ass until they give it back. 
I do underline and make notes in my books, but ONLY in pencil. There is nothing I hate more when paging through used books than to find them all scribbled up in pen or high-lighter; pencil can (theorhetically) be erased. A lot of times I find I can’t read and understand without underlining and taking notes–how else and I going to remember everything? Besides, it makes the book “mine” then. If I like a book well enough to underline passages in it, I’m probably not going to want to sell it.
I write my name in my books - especially in my reference books. As a French major, I have a couple of damn nice dictionaries (Larousse unabridged Fr/Eng., Le Petit Robert) that I will occasionally lend out to fellow French students on the floor where I’m an RA. As someone else noted, it’s also nice when multiple copies are floating around, as in a study group.
I’m also a compulsive highlighter, because that’s how I absorb information. Ex.: I was tested over Don Quixote last semester, so my highlighting and notes in the text were invaluable. It’s kind of fun to go through the used books at the college bookstore… I get a voyeuristic thrill out of reading margin notes from the previous owners. Sometimes it’s hilarious too - one of my students couldn’t stop laughing as she showed me the progressive notes in one of her texts. The previous owner started in Chapter 2 with something like “Oh God - please strike me down so I don’t have to finish this.” By Chapter 16, we were all crying from the student’s scribblings, including such gems as “So how much crack was the author smoking by this point? And how much did she have to slip the publishing house to disseminate this piece of sh** into the world?” I love my job sometimes.
I’d say if it’s a rare book, then don’t write in it. But in today’s mass-producing of books, I wouldn’t worry about the value of books on your shelf.
addendum to my previous post…
I do write my name in my $100 text books that I keep around my office. But that’s about it.
Picture me at the age of 9.
90% of my books were paperbacks, so I easily slid one end into the typewriter. My only hardcovers were usually presents, with an inscription from the person who gave it to me.
It seems rather unlikely that any of my books will ever be worth more than I paid for it, so writing in them doesn’t bother me. Looking back over my books and the year I bought them is the closest thing I have to a diary.
Okay, I am a bit slow today. I just realized that my carefully prepared post did not turn out exactly as planned. I was trying to post a reply to the above quoted obfusciatrist post.
My books are never anything close to pristine anyway. I read everywhere and my books join me in the bathtub, gym and meals. I enjoy my books and by the time I am done with them a little name writing isn’t going to detract from the value.
I don’t understand how people can read paperbacks and never crease the spine. You can’t get a book to sit in the book holder of a treadmill if you don’t properly crease the spine.
I would rather enjoy my books now then worry about my granddaughter making a few bucks on selling them I die.
Thanks for the replies everyone. I can see that I’m in the minority on this one (but I’m used to that). I guess I’ll just have to get over that vague feeling of annoyance I get when borrowing other people’s books.