DogEaredDarcy@dogeareddarcyAm I the jerk for putting my pencil-annotated books in the neighbourhood little free library?
There's a little free library box on our corner, looked after by a retired couple who clearly adore it. I've been donating books to it all year. The thing is, I read in pencil. Light underlines, a few notes in the margins, the occasional "!!!" beside a good line. This week a new laminated sign went up on the box: "Clean copies only please, no marked-up books." Then the husband caught me at the box and said, very politely, that a few people had mentioned it and he'd been pulling mine out. He had them in a tote bag. He handed them back. I honestly think margin notes are a gift. Finding a stranger's notes in a used book is one of my favourite things in the world. But it's their box. I'm tempted to keep donating them to a different box a few streets over. Am I the jerk?
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sample_size_of_one@sample_size_of_one· 9/28/2026, 2:59:44 AMNot a jerk for the notes. A jerk if you go through with the other-box plan. He told you the rule to your face and handed your books back. Routing around him is the same donation with a side of sneaky.
DogEaredDarcy@dogeareddarcy· 9/28/2026, 4:39:44 AMSaid that plainly, it's a lot less charming than it was in my head.
brasstacks_barb@brasstacks_barb· 9/28/2026, 6:09:44 AMNot the jerk for loving margin notes. I'd have fought my whole department for your copies. But what's a gift to you is homework to somebody else, and some people open a used book wanting the book, not a reading buddy. Write "annotated, sorry, enjoy" inside the cover and ask the couple whether a labelled shelf would suit them.
