Comments on: What is the Most Horrific Way You’ve Ever Ruined a Book?

By: Margaret

Margaret — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 21:37:19 +0000

I once rotted a banana on top of a textbook, but I think the prize goes to my brother’s dog throwing up play-dough on my backpack, which got on my notebook.

By: The Current State of My Current Read | Maw Books

The Current State of My Current Read | Maw Books — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 17:01:38 +0000

[...] reminds me of the other book that I ruined in the exact same way. When am I going to [...]

By: Reading & Blogging Review for 2009 | Maw Books

Reading & Blogging Review for 2009 | Maw Books — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:41:09 +0000

[...] What Is the Most Horrific Way You’ve Ruined a Book? [...]

By: Callista

Callista — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:52:53 +0000

Okay so I didn’t get a chance to weigh in on this topic yet!

I’ve splashed water on many books, and my dogs have peed on a few. My kids’ have thrown up on them yes and I’ve had both dogs and kids rip them and the kids have doodled on them with pen. That all happens regularily. I’ve dropped them in mud and dirt or left them behind somewhere (oh the horror!)

Great question!

By: klarusu

klarusu — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:31:19 +0000

I love this topic! Personally, guilty of the bath option on more than one occasion. The worst for me was when my cat threw up all over a paperback I was reading. It was one I’d had real difficulty tracking down so I just kind of had to dry it and chip it off (I shall leave the image to your imagination!).

By: Ashley

Ashley — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:43:07 +0000

I used to love reading those Goosebumps books with the foil covers when I was a kid. One summer I was reading while sitting on a lawn chair and my feet were in a blow up pool. I dropped the book in the pool. For some odd reason my dad decided we should dry it in the microwave, not realizing there was foil in the cover.

It was a lot of fun returning the book to the library and explaining what happened as we paid the fee.

I think this is a great topic!

By: Sharon

Sharon — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:39:56 +0000

These comments are great!

I don’t know which was worse – cheese or toilet? I hid some cheese in a book when I was really little, and forgot about it. Yuck, I never used a book as a hiding spot for food I was supposed to stay out of ever again. That was my favorite book I ruined!

As a toddler, one of my boys had a strange fascination with the toilet. He dropped whatever he got his hands on in the toilet if the door was left open. He dropped a brand new library book in the toilet. Yuck and expensive.

By: avisannschild

avisannschild — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:24:42 +0000

Thanks, Natasha, that’s the one!

By: Natasha Maw

Natasha Maw — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:18:47 +0000

Alyssa – I can’t imagine reading a book with a awful smell! Yuck!

‘Nise – Okay, you do a lot to books! I have driven off with my wallet on top of the car before. A good Samaritan found it in the middle of the street.

Dorte H. – I’m in the middle of potty training right now. Just cleaned up pee on the kitchen floor a mere minutes ago. Sigh . . .

avisannschild – The book that you are thinking of is The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers. I LOVE that book!

By: avisannschild

avisannschild — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:10:28 +0000

What a great post, with great comments! I recently ruined an ARC too and was horrified at what I’d done (though the book is not unreadable, luckily). I recently found out that you can clean stickiness off books by using eucalyptus oil (just put a bit on a q-tip and rub the stickiness off the book cover); however, this only works on glossy covers, not on ARCs! I tried to remove a sticker off the cover of an ARC and it just smeared the ink off the cover and spread the stickiness around. It now looks horrible!

For Rebecca and those who have mentioned children chewing books, do you know of a kid’s book about a boy who eats books? I unfortunately don’t remember what it’s called but I thought it was a really good story!