Finishing ahead of time

(Early 2008) On one occasion, I had checked out a book from the library, a rather large book that was well cared for. While I was looking through it, studying, and reading the part I was interested in, I found on one of its pages, in a margin, a pencil drawing of a heart and the phrase Finishing ahead of time. What could it mean? What might the author of it have intended to put? What message did they want to convey with that graffiti in that book? I start to suppose, and considering that it was a study book, it could mean that whoever was studying had, precisely, finished ahead of time and celebrated it with the drawing of the heart, or perhaps it was a comment alluding to a paragraph, but in that case it didn't make much sense with the topic being dealt with; besides, the drawing was unnecessary. Maybe they had planned to finish at a certain time and miscalculated or hurried and finished earlier, and now I can make up endless stories starting from that drawing and that phrase. For instance, maybe it was a student who, after studying, was going to meet their boyfriend (or vice versa), so they drew the heart alluding to the situation and happy about having finished sooner than expected.

A strange piece of writing; usually in library books you find comments about the subject, underlines, and almost never a drawing. The person who made it would never have imagined that today I am writing about that phrase, because strictly speaking, who would think of writing about something so trivial? And who knows how long it will last, whether someone will erase it, (if they read it in the future, that is, if someone has already erased it) or if it will endure. What could have driven them to write/draw that? Did they have a lot to study? Was the person in a hurry to finish? Was it a male or a female? Were they getting bored? Was it their habit to write/draw in the margins?

Nevertheless, this gives me cause to express a personal opinion about books in libraries. If there is something that bothers me immensely, it is finding underlined books in libraries, and the bad thing is that it happens to me every time. Perhaps I am the one who is wrong, but I consider it a lack of respect. The book is not yours, and they give it to you so you can use it, and that use implies that you take care of it, and underlining it is not taking care of it. 

Underlining it means bothering the next reader. Perhaps they are not interested in reading the same thing that was underlined. Some underline with a pencil, others, more wretchedly, do it with a ballpoint pen, and some with a colored pen. Why don't they buy the book and do whatever they want with it? Maybe because they cannot afford it or because they don't want to. But since they are lending it to you, the least you can do is take care of it. I don't know if the flaw is that they were never taught to respect others, or if they were and still don't care; I don't know if the contempt for the book comes as a consequence of selfishness, of thinking only of oneself, and not caring if some other person later finds themselves in the same situation needing the book. If the book is yours, do whatever you want; I don't judge that, it's your book, underline it as much as you want. Once I read about someone who considered the act of underlining new books as a way of "making it one's own," and I find that fantastic. 

Others prefer to keep them like new without touching them in the slightest, but ultimately they are their own books. It is a different case when the book is available to everyone, they lend it to you for a period of time, and I believe one should take great care of it, too much care, I would say. Yet the exact opposite happens. Why? Is the blame placed on libraries for the person's inability to buy the book? If that were the case, it would be a confusion of roles, or with that attitude, is there an attempt to somehow punish the State as a last resort for being responsible for the person not being able to access the book either due to a lack of means or because the book is very expensive or impossible to acquire? Or could it be the exacerbation of individualism? I don't know, but I don't understand those people; it's as if they don't care. 

Anonymity and the lack of control, I believe, favor this, and above all a culture that already stems from early stages, something like "I don't care," as if saying "there are more important things." I can understand that there are a few underlined books, but reality shows me it is the other way around; very few books are not underlined. Perhaps I am the one who is wrong, and I have strange values for the community, and in the social imagination it is accepted to underline a library book since, after all, when it is no longer of use, it is thrown away and another one is bought. Over time it wears out and becomes outdated, and it is a way of making the most of it. I don't know; in my case, I prefer to take care of it and not underline library books.

(Originally published on 02-17-2008)