Smiling Shelves Soapbox - Stickers on Borrowed Books

1/29/2015

The Smiling Shelves Soapbox is a chance for me to rant or rave about bookish things.

Stickers on newly-bought books bother me. You know, the ones that tell you the price of the book or what percentage you got off and what a great deal it was. I always take those stickers off as soon as I get home (unless they're difficult to get off, but that's another Soapbox post for another time.). Only then does it feel like the book is owned.

Towards the end of last year, I borrowed two books to read for my book club - The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. I borrowed them from fellow members of my book club who had finished reading them early. That was awfully nice of them, saving me from spending $40 to buy the books myself.

But these books still had the stickers on them. Ahh!

It's hard to explain just how much that drove me crazy. How many times I thought about peeling the stickers off. How often I wondered if they would even notice that the stickers were gone. How many times I debated asking them if I could take the stickers off - but then didn't, for fear they would think I was crazy. I ultimately returned the books in the condition I got them, stickers and all.

So am I crazy? Am I the only one bothered by stickers on books? Or are there fellow sticker-haters out there?

10 Comments

Carrie link

1/29/2015 01:18:49 am

I hate the stickers, too! I have to take them all off as soon as I get the book home. (I use Goo Gone on the hard-to-remove ones.)

Julie @ Smiling Shelves link

1/29/2015 01:08:49 pm

Goo Gone - that's a great idea! I'll have to try that on my next stubborn sticker.

Katie @ Doing Dewey link

1/29/2015 01:39:27 am

I feel the same way! At the point I pay for a new book, I don't think I should have to deal with marks and stickers on it.

Julie @ Smiling Shelves link

1/29/2015 01:26:52 pm

Exactly. I'm glad to know I'm not alone! :)

Jade @ Bits & Bobs link

1/29/2015 07:10:04 am

I hate stickers on books! Until the sticker is removed I feel like it's still ready to be placed back on a shelf ready to purchased by another. It's funny how we have these little bookish things that annoy us so, isn't it?
:-)

Julie @ Smiling Shelves link

1/29/2015 01:28:40 pm

Exactly. It's like you don't really own the book until the sticker is off. I'm glad I'm not the only one that finds this annoying. :)

Becca @ I'm Lost in Books link

1/29/2015 06:24:28 pm

I hate stickers on books, but I have run into problems with them. I would rather have the whole sticker on there than bits and pieces of the sticker because it won't all come off. I wish there was a better system than stickers.

Julie @ Smiling Shelves link

1/31/2015 09:27:48 am

Oh, yes, the hard-to-get-off ones are terrible! Somebody should definitely invent a better system. I'll get right on that. ;)

Jackie link

2/8/2015 09:28:54 am

I suppose stickers on books are a little jarring. If they were my own books, I would peel them off. Actually, depending on which friend let me borrow the books, I might peel the sticker off if I could tell that it was going to come off cleanly.

Julie @ Smiling Shelves link

2/9/2015 12:04:15 pm

I seriously debated taking the stickers off, but then I thought my friends might think me a little obsessive if the stickers really bothered me that much... :)

Smiling Shelves Soapbox - Stickers on Borrowed Books

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