Inspired by this thread Licking Your Finger to Turn the Pages - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board
It seems I can’t borrow a book from the library anymore without coming across some unknown disgusting thing stuck to one or more of the pages.
I can’t afford to buy new books and this is really putting me off library books.
Most of the time it looks like someone has sneezed into it.
This is a fairly recent phenomenon to me.
Has anyone else noticed this?
When I used to get paper library books, they usually were in decent condition, but get an ereader and you won’t have to worry about library book germs anymore. That’s assuming your library offers ebooks, but nowadays I think most do. Even if not, there are other ways to get free ebooks.
Can I read e-books on a laptop? Thats all I have right now.
Yes, you can. Most libraries use Overdrive and it has an ebook viewer.
I haven’t come across anything like that. Ikk.
I read e-books often, but the selection from the library isn’t as large as I’d like.
It’s a bit of a tangent, but can’t see I’ll ever again get a chance to post this bit of insanity.
About 5 years ago my mother told me emphatically she no longer borrowed books from the library without spraying them with anti-bacterial spray before reading. This was because “people use strips of bacon as bookmarks”. She confidently claimed this to be a regular practice, not just a one-off discovery of hers (although that alone would be weird, of course). No amount of incredulity, laughing, arguing or sheer exasperation would shake her from the assertion that this was a thing, and that she regularly encountered its effects.
She never showed any other signs of impending dementia before her death, but I’m wondering if that was actually something that would have worried us later.
I can’t recall coming across anything like that.
This reminded me though of a family friend who gave us kids a great number of books he’d outgrown. He had some form of pica (I’m guessing) and as he read, would tear off the edges of each page and eat them. To this day in the bookshelves of my family home there are children’s books with the edges of every page nibbled away.
I sort of love the idea of using strips of bacon as bookmarks, though.
One of the worst (IMO) I came across was a book where the previous borrower had used one of those horrifically smelly perfume strips that come in women’s magazines. Nothing like the overpowering stench of Opium or Obsession to bring on an instant headache – and I’m not even particularly sensitive to scented stuff.
I once took a book out of the library that had some of the pages stuck together with gum. 
I hate gum to begin with, so this really grossed me out.
I see the gross stuff but try to ignore it and read through the affected section quickly. Most dangerous germs are probably dead by the time I am reading that page. What I see most are squashed insects.
I have never heard of or used bacon as a bookmark as that would be a waste of bacon.
i don’t read paper fiction from the library so not a problem.
I’m actually more concerned about the the bacteria on the library’s door handles and elevator buttons than I am about anything on the books. In my case, I usually read the books that rarely get checked out from the library, so I have never found too much wrong with them.
OP, if this is a serious concern, just start buying used books from Amazon. They have them as low as a penny ($3.99 shipping cost) and they have a wide selection. I have purchased an embarrassing quantity of them (mostly technical books) and I have noted no ill effects.
Librarian checking in. It’s not recent. People have been mistreating library books for decades. It’s still pretty rare and I’d say most books are in good condition, but you name it, I’ve seen a book doused in it. Mud. Grape Juice. Snot. Urine. FECES. Nothing surprises me any more.
OK, once, I opened a DVD case to return it and a cockroach jumped out. That surprised me.
Children’s librarian here. One of my duties is repairing damaged books, and yes, some of that damage is yucky stuff stuck on the pages or covers. I really don’t think it’s that big of a problem, though, considering that our popular books circulate hundreds of times before they’re worn out. One thing that used to surprise me when I repaired adult books was the number of books returned absolutely reeking of cigarette smoke. P.U.
My favorite repair though was a book titled “It’s Not Nice To Bite” that was returned with a huge, obvious bite taken out of the cover.
Almost every board book gets chewed to bits, too. Apparently toddlers literally consume books.
I borrowed a book once to discover that someone had filled its pages with densely-written (in pen!) religious ravings intended to rebut the argument of the book.
It didn’t work.
I reported the book as ruined. 
I didn’t know e-books could be read on a laptop so thanks for that info.
Bacon as a bookmark, next time I find a larger than normal chunk of something stuck to a page I’ll pick it off and taste it.
I’ll report back if it’s bacon.
Sunspace, I’ve also run across writing in book margins, I live in a college town and it’s mostly notes.
(Clean) toilet paper bookmarks, all the time. Haven’t seen bacon but I imagine we’ve gotten pretty much everything at one point or another. Definitely snotty tissue bookmarks.
My personal favorites were the (unused) condom bookmark and the $100 bill bookmark.
There’s a serial vandal at our library who checks books out and corrects typos in pencil. She (I assume it’s a woman, I don’t know why, maybe it’s a man, anyway she) also corrects grammatical errors in dialog and answers rhetorical questions with witless snark and makes snide comments about character’s sexual choices.
Special hell.
I can’t stand when there’s hair in a book. And a newer concern is bedbugs but I haven’t come across any yet.