Let's Figure Out Your Life

One of the most interesting things that you can study about a book is it's provenance, or it's origin and history.  My specific book for this class, as I addressed in the previous post, doesn't have much to offer in this department, as it was published in 2013, when I purchased it. Again, the only mark on it is a hot chocolate spill.  Though the story behind that is fairly interesting.  I was home over winter break and suddenly had a craving for hot chocolate due to the fact that it was -30 degrees with the windchill and I'd just had to go on a trip to get salt for our front walk.  However, we had no hot chocolate mix.  We also had no cocoa powder.  And we had no chocolate syrup.  So I was forced to scrounge up some chocolate chips and attempt to melt them into some milk to make hot chocolate.  It turned out surprisingly well, actually.  But I still spilled a little on the outside of my book.  So now I will forever remember my culinary endeavors this past winter.

My interactions with books are not also so devoid of provenance, however.  I recently ordered a book about exemplary pieces of album art from Amazon that used to belong to a library somewhere in the country.  While I have not yet come across any notes or personalization within the book, there is the very clear wear from use over the years.  Sadly, despite Amazon.com's promises that this piece was previously owned by some library, there is no evidence of what or where that library was, so I was unable to do much investigation into the journey this book has taken.

Also, in the past few years, I have greatly enjoyed giving my dad books as gifts, and each time, he has me put a note in them with my name and the occasion of the gift.  Eventually, some random person 100 years from now may come across one of the novels I gave him and discover a note that says "To Daddy, Love Megan Christmas 2012" or the like.  And that will be just as interesting to people then as it is for us to find a note from the early 1900s.  That's a fairly staggering thought, though I guess that's simply how life and history progress.

From a fairly young age, I feel like it's made taboo in our society to write in books in any way.  To make a single marking is marring a novel.  Yet it's such a simple way to immortalize ourselves and to give a piece of ourselves to future generations.  Yes, a few pencil markings may clutter the pages a little, but they'll also tell our stories, right alongside the stories that we've grown to love.