November 20th, 2004
 senji
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2004/11/20 19:16:00 - Upon
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Today I purchased a copy of the Chronicles of Narnia. I'd seen it on Wednesday in the Oxfam bookshop, and hadn't wanted to purchase it before checking that we didn't already have sensible copies of the books.
It's a nice hardback edition; doesn't look like it's been particularly badly treated. On the first inside page is an inscription -- "Christmas 2001" and the usual "for X, with love from Y" message.
I wonder how long its been there, who X and Y are, and why X didn't want it...
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](https://imgprx.livejournal.net/7fb3573f560ba9b6bddd917972f3c010a14f40e3/vf2yg9-cL6hHNsdGbD9aeCspLSSLq0bjkS-CQIq0FXBYjP28LqAMOA-V71lMFj326DVF0TGEFFJaWUERKccub_dttIquE6edhEW4OQ4dw1ZR48XON56ICMRlEQExwUrF) contemplative
Current Music: The Moonlight String Orchestra, Celine Dion--Don't Lie to Me
Entry Tags: books 2004, musing
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 enismirdal
![[userpic]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/23199970/1501874)
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2004/11/20 16:27:20
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Maybe X reached the age where s/he was 'too old for fairy stories' and wanted to move on to 'grown up stuff'. Bleh. S/he should have kept it around until s/he was 'once more old enough for fairy stories' and take it down, dust it off, and read it through once more.
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 latentfunction
![[userpic]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/107655770/1419943)
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2004/11/20 17:20:15
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I bought a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring at Halfpriced Books, and it still had a Christmas card in it, from a son to a father. It was the sort of card you wouldn't want thrown away (or sold). I think I kept it, though now I'm not sure where.
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 aldabra
![[userpic]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/25332757/1085046)
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2004/11/21 01:36:35
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I once left a postcard bookmark in a UL book when I returned it. It was from my Hungarian teacher, in Hungarian, saying good luck for my A-levels. Fortunately the next person who borrowed the book knew me and guessed it was important.
I think it was the Metafont book.
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 alfvaen
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2004/11/20 19:13:21
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I always wonder that. I haven't gone through and made a list of all the books with such inscriptions that I've found in second-hand bookstores, but there are certainly many. And it's always a little bit sad.
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 pm215
![[userpic]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/6204283/1216455)
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2004/11/20 20:55:06
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For some reason I think writing in books is Wrong, and I'd include front-page inscriptions in that category...
(I suppose I could say that it makes the book different from other copies, so it moves away from the Platonic ideal of a carrier of information, and means you then can't easily sell it, or replace it if it falls in the bath, or whatever. But that all feels like post-hoc justification really.)
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 rochvelleth
![[userpic]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/26973465/3853311)
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2004/11/21 06:08:52
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X is the (now spurned) lover of Y, who couldn't bear to keep the tome in his/her home any longer and thus donated it to charity.
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