Off the NEW shelf no less.

Someone has gone through it will pen, crossing out the author's words and writing their own political slant in the margin... neatly.

I am going to tell the library when I bring it back on the chance I am the 2nd person to have checked out this copy.

Damn

Oh, that is so horrible.  Besides the fact another political zealot is spewing their views inappropriately, what an awful thing to do to a book!

I love and revere books so much I could barely highlight my college textbooks.  I don't think I could ever cross out words and write in a book, even if it was a book of views I found completely abhorrent.

Son of a bitch.

I got another book off the new shelf at the library and it is marked up in the same way. I reported the other one and got a shrug in response. This is a brand new $28 book.

Bet it was the same jerk as the first one. It's so disrespectful to 1.) force your opinion on someone else unsolicited like that (if you wanted to, you'd be reading a book with similar agenda as what this person had written, instead, no?) and 2.) to deface a book.

@ curious wanderer - I'm with you. I hated highlighting my college textbooks. I have a hard time writing in a brand new journal, let alone an actual book. Weird.

The fact that you reported it and got a shrug means some of the people in that place need to be slapped across the face with a sock full of fresh dogshit.  Why have those books in the library at all if they are going to be defaced in such a manner?  Fuckers.

luci, it is the same writing and the same politics...

I just called the library and they have a good reason to not be able to do anything - they don't keep records of who has checked out what.

She went on to explain that when this happens, they pull the book from the shelf which means this $28 book is thrown out when it is 2 weeks old rather than having people be able to read it for the next 10 years.

She did say they would keep an eye in case they are no checking them out but doing it in the library but I am sure they are checking them out because the person making the remarks is reading the book and quite intelligent... I  mean their comments blend with the author's prose, which is why it is so distracting.

The major bummer here is I am going to have to find a new library because I can't read books in this condition.

argh. And the librarian's attitude= not helpful at all. The only bright spot I can see is that at least they didn't remove the book from the library entirely- just checking it out and never paying the fine.

This happened to me once, with a fiction book no less- treated to marginalia about how stupid the author was. Whee.

It sucks, Elsa.  Why can't these people keep their brain-spouting to themselves instead of forcing it on others by writing it in books we seek to read?  I'm hoping you find an alternative library where this person did not attack any of those books as well.

No, I think they are definitly checking the books out. The remarks are thoughtful and made very neatly and throughout the entire book.

This is a person who is reading a book and making corrections in the vein of "the media" becomes "the communists" and the like. It's very distracting and the author's actual word(s) are inked out completely (and neatly) in most cases.  

The person's printing looks like type.

That's awful!   

What an appalling story all around.  I figured the shrug was because there was no way to know who did it; for privacy reasons most libraries don't keep records of who has checked out what once the items are returned.

At my library we would also discard the book.  We might try to replace it, with a note in the record to check for marginal comments every time it's checked in, but with the economy like it is they may not have the money to get another copy or the staff to spend time policing it.

I wish this thoughtful politically minded person would devote all that effort to writing their own book instead of "correcting" other people's.

Beth, my library has had some problems with the public checking out new age and astrology books and never bringing them back.  We can never tell if it's people who are really interested and just want to keep them, or people who disapprove and don't want anybody to read them!