How do you identify/mark/brand/emboss books for your personal library?

I hope this is the right forum.

I don't have a ton of books but I have come upon the idea of stamping or otherwise marking my books as my own.

Do you have ideas/suggestions/warnings of what to do or not do.

Do you have any sayings, quotes, quips that would be neat to print on a stamp (other than from the Library of Grant Boyd).

All thoughts and suggestions (and warnings) welcome.

Thanks.

Cheers,

~Grant

If you have a book that is, or could become, collectable, I recommend that you do not mark it. It is somewhat jarring to come across a signed first edition in a bookstore, only to find that a previous owner has added his signature to that of the author. On the other hand, I do enjoy the personal touches, including marginalia, contained in other used boooks I buy.

It's a matter of personal taste - like many others, I'm a bit uncomfortable about marking books, although I do generally write my name on the flyleaf in pencil if I lend a book to someone.

But it can be very pleasant to find a bookplate, stamp or name in an old book - it gives you a feeling of connecting with the history of the book as an object, and it's particularly interesting when the previous owner was a relative (I have some books my grandmother won as Sunday School prizes before the first world war) or is interesting in some other way. Or even a perfectly ordinary person from a distant time or place. I even have to smile a bit when I find a book that I stamped with my John Bull printing set when I was about ten years old...
So don't let the fastidiousness of the bibliophiles here put you off. One day, people might enjoy wondering who Grant Boyd was and what he got out of this book.

If you're artistically inclined, or know someone who is, a nice bookplate is probably the most attractive way to mark books.

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It is somewhat jarring to come across a signed first edition in a bookstore, only to find that a previous owner has added his signature to that of the author.

Unless, of course, that previous owner is important in his own right.

#4 Every time someone mentions something like that I get a little sick about missing out on Harpo Marx's signed copy of Babbitt.

I had book plates and a personalized embosser when I was still in jr. high, but I quickly fell out of the habit of using them. A few years ago my mother in law bought me another personalized embosser and I use it for some of my non-fiction and reference works. Thinks that I know will never interest a collector.

>good point! We own a Portuguese waterdog, and my wife has a copy of My Senator and Me written by Senator Kennedy's waterdog Splash, but signed by Senator Kennedy. I currently am finishing an old copy of Venice by James Morris. In the back, a prior owner had pencilled in her day-by-day itinerary for a week in Venice. Scattered throughout the book were two old Venice postcards, and a number of tickets from Venice museums and vaporetto rides. It made the book even more evocative of Venice.

I've wanted a LibraryThing Stamp ever since they came out, but I haven't gotten around to investing in one yet.

Right now I don't mark my books in any way, not because I'm worried about the value (I don't have many books that are, or are likely to become, collector's pieces), but because I just never have done so.