To get irritated at others writing comments in books?

I do hate to see library books vandalised, though I have sometimes use pencil in my own property.

Sadly, as with everything, people who get a free service show no respect.

It seems a very long time since I borrowed a book from the library that has not been marked "discreetly" by regular library users.

From what I notice, people choose to put a dot over a particular page number, or monogram somewhere, often on the front or back cover, and they always use biro.

I assume they do it so they can check if they have read the novel before, or not. Whatever the reason it still defaces library property!

I volunteer in a small library and get annoyed when books are returned damaged or defaced. We rely a lot on books being donated so it's a shame when people's kindness is not reciprocated.
I just could not bring myself to write in a book whether its mine or from a library.

"himself strongly"?????? "him so strongly".

That’s the sort of thing I would do, grumppa.

I didn't realise this thread was going to be mostly about library books. I haven’t used a library for a very long time, so I was just talking about my own books. I also have some that belonged to my mother, and I love finding her occasional comments and corrections in them.

Or perhaps it was Animal Farm.

I occasionally annotate books of my own, either to save time on rereading, or where I strongly disagree with the author. I remember savagely pencilling the chapter on A Midsummer Night's Dream in Jan Kott's Shakespeare Our Contemporary, because I disagreed wirh himself strongly. I had recently played Quince, so felt entitled to my point of view.

A rasher of bacon! It must have been in a Peppa the Pig book. Excuse poor joke, its the heat getting to me!.

Yes but they disappear regullarly. I have about 10 - most of them lost somewhere in the house! But if its a library book I use any odd bit of paper.
A librarian once told me they find some very strange book marks from shopping lists to £5 notes and even a rasher of bacon once!

Why do people turn a corner of the page to "save their place". USE A BOOKMARK that's why they were invented,

I have never come across that. I did write a message on fb and got corrected by a complete stranger 😀

notice a lot of mistakes on kindle FREE books, but because they are free i just read through them. But i did find it annoying on library books with pencil marks and comments.

Jaycee I think you have summed up my feelings. It does pull you out of the story. In the book I mention in my OP the reader had obviously thought they had a better grasp of English and grammar than the author. I found myself thinking, no you are wrong and the author is correct and getting cross about that instead of enjoying the book.

As an ex-librarian it infuriates me when people deface library books, either by writing in them or turning over corners to keep their place or using them as coasters! I annotate and underline my own non-fiction books heavily because they belong to me and I’m unlikely to be lending them to anyone else.

I too detest people who write in library books! Even if they use a pencil, someone is still going to have to erase their jottings.

Once I borrowed a textbook from the library that someone had used when studying for an exam. They had highlighted everything that they needed to remember with a fluorescent marking pen! Sheer vandalism !

Definitely beyond the pale to write in or otherwise deface library books. I could not bring myself even to write in my own books of which there are many.
Exceptions would be musical scores as Grandma70 said or maybe your own textbooks other than that its a big no from me.
I have written to authors and publishing houses when there have been serious spelling and grammatical errors in books.

Sorry, posted before I previewed. My poor eyesight prevented me from typing pollyperkins properly.

+pollyperkins*, I was going to mention annotating musical scores, too. It is assumed you will do it, and you may well get into trouble for not having a pencil with you. I usually owned my scores, but if we were using borrowed ones, other people’s comments and instructions (if not rubbed out) could be quite enlightening! Sometimes funny, too.

I would never write in books, one exception was recently when I bought a book to research while writing my own book,I underlined the important parts which were easy for me to find when needed.

I too think of this as vandalism. I can’t bear to see writing or any other sort of defacement in books, including turned down pages and spines broken where they have been folded back.
As a child, all my books were covered with brown paper as soon as they arrived in the house (no plastic sheeting available then).

I agree with regard to library books or borrowed books. What I do with my own books is my affair, surely. Actually I don't write in them (except text books in pencil) but have been guilty of turning down corners as my book marks are always disappearing. At choir we are TOLD to write (in pencil) on scores but we do rub it out afterwards. If I didn't write on them I'd never remember what we were told to do! I think this is standard practice for music. Using pen in unforgivable though.

Well, "additional" pencilled-in comments are out of order but so is.......turning over the corner of a page instead of using a bookmark. Occassionally I come across library books that have had this 'vandalism' perpetrated upon them and it drives me nuts!

I'm a volunteer in a community-owned library, and this drives me mad! It is criminal damage!

.. or required to pay for a replacement book...

This is vandalism so report it to the librarian who will know from records who borrowed the book on previous occasions. A large notice should be on view to the public that should there be damage to a book, which is what has occurred to the book you borrowed then those responsible will be prosecuted.

The only writing I've seen in a book was when someone left their email address and suggested contacting them to chat about the book. I didn't!

I don,t like this either. Have had some library books that have been completely spoiled by the various comments and corrections, added by a reader who thinks they know better than the author of the book. I also don,t like turned down corners to mark the place and people who eat really messy food while reading, and allow it to drop onto the page of the book sticking the pages together. Luckily we don,t have too many of these books in our library but there is one author in particular that I used to read and given up on now as I can,t be bothered with all the extra "graffitti" that comes with it.