The Next Best Book Club discussion

I borrowed a book from my sister and she still had the big Borders price sticker on the back and the Buy Two get One Free sticker on the front and it made me CRAZY. I had to repeatedly stop myself from doing it, not that she would have cared but I didn't want to mess with her book since I don't want people messing with mine but it made me realize that's another one of my quirks. I always take all the stickers off, always. Sometimes I do it as soon as I get in the car, I take my books out, look at them lovingly, and then pull off every label. If there is a label that doesn't come off cleanly it makes me crazy and I'll try to get the adhesive off with Windex.

What other quirks do you guys have, cuz I know I'm not the only one!

Joanie, I've just had to sit down and fan myself at the mere thought of books with stickers still on them! It gave me palpitations.

Pay for books, get in car, open bag, stickers off (ALL of them), look at them lovingly, relax, drive home, read.

That is the natural order of things and this should not be tampered with.

Oh yes, and my bottle of nail varnish remover is in my library at home for those unsightly sticker marks.

I am LOLing as I absolutely can't stand to have stickers on my books! I read a book this weekend that I borrowed from a friend, and like you Joanie, it took every ounce of restraint I had to not rip the sticker off. :) Glad I'm not the only one, I just thought it was my OCD.

I'm also currently waiting for B&N to send me a new copy of White Oleander as the copy I received last week had a huge rip in the cover. I hate to see tears in covers and other bend marks (I do my best not to bend paperbacks).

There is this stuff called, Goo Gone. Works great for anything sticky. Takes it right off.

I am right there with you guys! I hate the stickers too! I just found myself peeling one off a really old book just the other day.
So funny how we have the same pet peaves!!

I have to have a book mark. Sometimes I take my bookmarks and insert them in my TBRs.
I have my TBR basket right by my bed. :)

Just a magic hint that I learned at Tiffany & Co. To get stickiness off of any surface...rubbing alcohol. It's the best!!

Shannon, there is nothing worse than bent covers or battered books from a shop. Even if I want a book and it's the only copy left and it looks a bit battered, I won't buy it - I wouldn't be able to relax enough to read it.

Geez, when I read it back to myself I realise how bad my OCD actually is. LOL!

You all have made me laugh! I knew my fellow bookfreaks would understand!

Oh this is funny because I got a wonderful trade paperback copy of Hugo's Hunchback of Notre-Dame and it is nearly perfect except that the previous owner tried and failed to remove the sticker and it is driving me BANANAS!!!I'll have to try Boof's idea of nail varnish or maybe nail polish remover.It'll drive me crazy not to!

I'm not so OCD about stickers, unless it's glaring at me, like those Buy Two get One stickers. They are just obscene on a front cover.

I am OCD about my bookmark. I've had the same bookmark for the past 2 years or so and I plan to use it for life. It has a string at the end, which I love because I can use it to mark the pages I've read for the day. I like to see how much progress I made for the day on the books I'm reading.

There is a product called Goo Gone that works wonders on stickers. You should be able to find it at any large retailer...Target, Walmart, Lowe's, etc. I use it when my preschooler goes sticker crazy around the house.

Just saw Kellie's post about Goo Gone. :-)

I've always wondering what on earth possesed those idiots to put stickers on the books anyway. A sign saying 50% off would work just as well. It's even more annoying when they're over the title or author name...drives me bonkers.

Ken, those are metallic strips to set off the alarms in case of theft. If they are in the back cover, people see them and remove them. If they are inside the pages, people dont notice as much.

As far as OCD, I end up removing all of the stickers, but Im not nuts about it. Sometimes I actually like rolling them as I read.... its relaxing...

I hate tears and dents and bent covers. I had no choice with Brothers Karamazov. It was the only copy in the store, and I wanted it so badly, that I bought it even tho the bottom left corner had a slight tear up the spine... As I read the book, i couldnt help fingering that tear. A month of fingering it, and it was wee bit more torn than when it was originally purchased! When I know the deformity is there, I cant stop touching it, and end up making it worse!!!

Speaking of quirks, I order from betterworld books a lot and sometimes you get less than stellar book conditions, well this spring I received a marvelous "new book" with no markings or tears. When I fanned the pages out fell a christmas card and a twenty dollar bill! I will accept any currency in all books from now on please!!

Wow, Rachelle, that's the book that just kept on giving!

Oh wow... Free money is always a great thing!! Free money inside a new book is even better!

No doubt, I ordered more books with the twenty but alas it was a one time windfall.

Lucky devil!

I have the same sticker quirk too! After I buy books, I love to come home, make a cup of tea or pour a glass of wine, and then I peel the stickers off while admiring my new family members. I'm also quirky about the books I buy. I will not buy books with movie tie-ins. I hate them. I also hate books with the "fake stickers" - like the ones that announce its an Oprah book club pick - but the "sticker" is actually part of the cover design. Won't buy those either.

I don't mind if it an award emblem ("fake sticker"...love it), but I agree, the Oprah stamp on a book sucks...especially when it is stamped on one of the classics like she 'discovered it'.

Oh wow....y'all don't know how HAPPY I am to learn I'm not alone in these obsessions.

Whenever I come home with a haul from HPB I spend the first 15 minutes s-l-o-w-l-y peeling off the price tags and various stickers. And making sure all of the stickieness is gone.

And then I take the dust jackets off whenever I read them. I set them where they cannot be accidently stepped on.

I think when my beagle Lexus was alive she got yelled at more for getting doggie "snoodles" (my vet's word for the moisture marks from a dog's nose) on my book covers than for chewing up a pair of shoes! :-)

Oh....and don't even get me started on my need to go through the entire stack of the same book at HPB to find the "best" one--the one with no tears, marks, dog-ears, etc. My husband thinks I've lost my mind when he catches me doing that. (Sheepshily hanging head)

I love this group. Y'all make me feel normal!!

Just for future reference, Spudsie...if you take your books to the 'Buy Counter' (where they buy back books) at HPB and ask them sweetly, they will remove the stickers for you with this killer junk they use for taking stickers off (removes all the glue and everything without damaging the books). It will save you some time at home so you can get right into your reading.

I second that Spudsie!

I looked at the OCD thread. You guys are great!
Lists for everything.
I forgot I also have a series list and a home library list.

In the last few years I seem to value books a LOT more than I used to.
After I read one, if it's great, it's staying here. If it's not so great, I trade it, give it to Mom or my sister to read OR hold on to it for a while until I decide what to do with it.
NEVER NEVER take it to goodwill or throw it away.

I am the same way with stickers. I hate that borders has thier own price sticker OVER the actual barcode even though its the same price. Right when I get in the car, or go to the train station, have to peel off the stickers. I cant read them if they are still on the book. I've tried and its like they keep calling "She'Davia...She'Davia....SHE'DAVIA". lol.

I dont have that big of a deal with creases or marks on the books though, as long as they are made AFTER I buy them. I carry around my books alot on the train and bus and I'm constantly taking them in and out of a bag like 30 times a day, so I understand that some marks will be made.

I'm right there with ya She'Davia. I don't care if I make marks, I just don't want pre-owned marks. I do tend to underline or mark favorite passages (in pencil only). Oh, one of my other quirks is dog-earring pages. Hate it too! One time one of my students borrowed one of my books and dog-earred his place. I saw him do it and let out a loud gasp. All of the students starting looking around the room and asking "What up, Ms R?" I was slightly shame faced to explain, but I did to the amusement of my class. Now, I buy those little post it notes (around 1 inch) for my students to use as bookmarks.

I feel so normal here at least :)

haha...so glad I'm not the only one who hates stickers on the books. I pull them off immediately after returning home. I am also one to root through the shelves at a bookstore for the best-looking copy. But I will only do that with new books; used books it doesn't really matter if they are a little bit battered. I also have the mutual dislike of books with the characters from the movie on them. It irks me and I won't buy it, which is why I still don't have No Country for Old Men. Can't find a copy without Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, or Javier Bardem on the cover.

I don’t mind stickers as long as they’re easily removable. Half Price Books has horrible little permanent stickers that are the devil to get off. But I’m another fan of Goo Gone.

Speaking of used books, does anyone else besides me open up the book before buying and take a good sniff to make sure it doesn’t smell of smoke? I hate opening a book and smelling stale cigarette smoke. Ugh.

Ha ha... Dorie, in another thread buried somewhere around here, a few of us were talking about book-sniffing and book-licking. If you can find it, it was quite funny!!!!

OMG Lori, I found the thread and it was hysterical! I may sniff books, but I'm no book-licker. You have to draw the line somewhere! ;-D

Hee hee. I thought you would get a kick out of it. It was too funny.....

OMG I share all these idiosyncracies! Well, maybe not the booklicking :)

Stickers don't make it home - I'm already peeling them off when I stop at traffic lights. However, I've lately laid off the price stickers at the back, because I find some satisfaction when seeing how much the book had cost me (esp when it's very little hahaha). I also like seeing my newly acquired books on the passenger seat as I drive home!

New books have got to be perfect yes, but I don't mind used books that have been well-loved. In fact, I prefer used books. Esp when there's an inscription from the giver (believe me, fathers write the best messages!), or finding something that's been left in the book (probably used as a bookmark?). Like a flight ticket stub (why were there going THERE?), a post-it with scribbled notes, the receipt from where they got the book, etc.

(The best find was an A4 sized photo of Tinkerbell, autographed by the woman who originally did the voice. Now, that's a find!)

Another quirk of mine - I have to sign the inside cover and the title page of the book, complete with the date that I bought it. When catalogued, I stamp a little frog on the copyright page. And when I've read it, I sign the back page, again with the date I finished reading it.

Ahem... in the normal scope of things I'd probably be weird, but hopefully not in this group teeheehee

Ahhh..Kataklicik wonderful quirk.
I like used books myself. I call them "my treasures"

Kat... That is an interesting Quirk, signing and write the start and finish date...hmmmm... if i wasnt so against writing in them, I could see myself doing that!

It's great to know that we are all "perfectly normal"!!

I have to agree with Lori, I like the idea of signing and dating the book at the beginning and end, but I hate to write in books!

Ken, Using markers to write the price, that's simply a crime! I, too, would have left them there.

Glad to see I'm not the only one that likes a perfect book. :) I seriously considered keeping said torn book, but the voices in my head kept saying "return it, it's awful, you would have never picked it in the store", so I am still waiting for my new copy. Boof, I also look in the stack of books for the nicest one.

It's so nice to be among so many kindred spirits! I never write in my books either-hate it. When I was in grad school my friend was looking on with me and we were discussing body dismorphic disorders and the book listed out the most common body parts people obsess on. She underlined the word "nose" in my book and then made a big arrow pointing to herself to let me know she doesn't like her nose, I almost lost my mind! The book is this big reference type book that I still have in my office today and it's still marked up thanks to my friend!

Oh I always rifle through to find the most "perfect" looking one. But then my friend who works in a book store went a ruined it for me by telling me that they regularly swap the books around as the ones on top nealry always get left. I was horrified!!! That surely means that someone else has had their grubby paws on MY book! How dare they!

Good Morning Ken, I dont tend to sniff each book, but sometimes when i open one, i catch a whiff of something, and bring it to my nose to further inspect the scent.

Cat piss is horrid! I would have scrubbed my hands till they were raw and bleeding!!

I feel the need to step in here and defend my book-licking. It's not like it was a regular occurrence or anything. I just happened to have a nacho emergency and am loathe to leave any cheese behind, let alone on a book. My dog has a sick fascination with licking my books, the used ones mostly. First he sniffs very intently for a minute then tentatively licks side of the pages. He never goes further than that (he would regret it) but he does it constantly.

Um, wow the book licking just took this conversation onto a whole other level! LOL

Boof, That is horrifying news! That's all the more reason why they should just leave the shelves alone. Let the top one get ruined by everyone and leave the others to stay perfect!

Logan, I have to confess that if I was in that same nacho situation, I probably would have reacted the same way. There is just no reason to leave cheese behind...ever.

I also remove the stickers from my books but usually not until I pick it up to read it...

As far as rips, marks in the binding and the such...I like to get books that are perfect when I am @ B&N or Borders...used books I do not mind if they are not perfect.

Once while @ Borders w/ a friend, she was looking @ a book and it was the only copy there and it was all ripped up @ the top corner of the binding...and she said to me "what did it matter as long as it was readable she didnt care..."...I guess she has a point to a certain degree but it would have annoyed me and I probably would have waited to by it...

I think if you are buying a new book the condition of the book does matter. I wouldn't buy new clothes with rips or lose buttons on them. So if I'm buying a new book I expect it to be in pristine condition.

Used books, on the other hand, doesn't really matter because you know the book is used so you expect something like a tear or writing. Personally, I can't stand writing in my books...this includes text books. I cringe everytime I see someone highlighting or writing in their books.

In this group some people just might! lol

I didn't highlight my books in college only because I always sold mine back. I could stand some highlighting, but some people take it to the extreme and highlight practically the whole page. Doesn't that defeat the purpose when everything on the page is important?

WD40 also works well on the labels. My husband would sympathize with you. I "never" remove the labels, but somehow they are always gone. Bugs him no end when I leave them. Call me crazy, if it makes him happy, I'll leave them on for him.

One of the things that I am most happy about was that I was able to resist my poverty and not sell my books back at the end of each term. I find that I return to them again and again to clarify a point in some argument I'm making. They've found a life outside the classroom in my home.

Logan- OMG! I wasn't even thinking about TEXTBOOKS in this thread!!

My dad has a PhD (Post hole Digger he'd tell you :-)) in organic chemistry. While visiting several years ago he mentioned he was going to throw out his text books. He'd kept them for over 30years....and was finally just going to throw them away.

NO WAY!!! I just couldn't let that happen. So I packed them up and shipped them to Ohio.

And am now the proud owner of a bookshelf full of organic chemistry books. Gulp. I barely passed high school chemistry. What am I going to do with that many PhD level chem books?!?! No clue. But they've had a good home with me for years.

Throw away books. Shaking my head. What was the thinking??

I can stand highlighting in books, because at schools, especially private schools, it is required. In 9th grade my teachers checked to make sure that we had highlighted, underlined, and made notes on the pages. So that they knew that we actually did our homework.

Smoke Smell - The worst...I hate it when the books come back to the library smelling like a stale ashtray....it's disgusting...it's one thing when it's your own book but when it's something someone else is going to use please try to be more courteous.

Goo Gone - It is a miracle worker...that's what we use here at the library.

Book Marks - I design the bookmarks for my branch and surprisingly I never have one to use myself...usually use envelopes or pieces of mail.

Things left in books...people leave all kinds of things...cards, bookmarks, library cards, one time someone left a $100 bill in a book...crazy. (I didn't get the money it was returned to the rightful owner)

Bookmarks! I hardly ever buy them myself, because I lose them frequently. I mean, I don't 'lose' them, they're probably still in the books they were used in hahaha. Can't stand dog-ear pages so receipts, envelopes, whatever is at hand, comes in useful.

I'm usually given bookmarks by well-meaning relatives and friends who all know of my reading addiction. Usually they're souvenirs (of places I've never been to but they have! aacckk!). I hope they don't realise I have noooo idea where their bookmarks are...

I have had the same bookmark for at least 12 years, maybe even longer, I can't remember when I bought it. It's a picture of The Kiss by Klimt and I have always kept it in it's plastic sleeve that it came in. I have almost lost it a few times and gotten really bummed out but then it's always turned up. I'm really attached to that book mark, I'd be so bummed if I lost it! I have other that people have given me as gifts and I do use them to mark a place in books I've left unfinished but the one of The Kiss is always my working bookmark.