This has been posted a few times, but it's bears a reminder.  If you want to scribble out the swear words in a book, fine.  That's your choice.  But, per the rules,  you cannot post those books for trade here.

I got through 250-some pages of a book, and dialogue is blacked out because *gasp* they used swear words.

Yes, I'm pissed.  :(  I can't tell what's being said and I can't repost the book.  Jerks!

What on earth is this site coming to if you not only have to check for cleaving and water damage, but you must now look at every page for writing before you can mark it received and be assured of securing the opportunity to pass it on once you've finished it (for credit I mean).

Oh good gravy, what next.....

I could see this happening if someone gave them the book and they didn't go through it to make sure it was postable.

another good reason to flip through your books BEFORE posting just to make sure they are postable!

Leslie- yes!

If you haven't read the book, check it.  Check it well.

And yes, Julie - I think we do have to look every book over when we receive them  Sigh.

If you are offended by swear words and routinely mark them out in books - then yes, you should be aware that doing so means you cannot post the book.  Sorry.  Dems the rules.  I don't think it's catastrophic to ask people to follow the rules.

If it really offends someone that much, why do they bother reading it?

LOL, I've never seen a book that someone did that to. It's kinda funny in a weird way though, isn't it? I mean, to take the time to do that just because of the f word or whatever? That's mental. (and that's an opinion) ;)

I'm just curious about the reasoning behind doing that.  I mean, if you don't want to read a swear word, you have to read it to scribble it out, so why go to the effort since you already saw it?  Maybe scribbling out means it's not really there?  Or, maybe they were passing it on to someone else who wouldn't want to read those words.  Maybe it's an OCD thing?  Interresting to think about.

Yeah, Candy, I'd say that someone scratching out all the swear words is mental--geez.

I've seen library books where this was done -- I'm assuming they were trying to "protect" future readers??  But of course at the library we had to throw the book out and buy a new copy.

rebecca

Okay, I cannot stop giggling about this... all I see is this crabby lady hunched over a desk manically scribbling out words in books...

*snicker*

Maybe it's the allergy meds I'm on, but I cannot get this image out of my head, L! ;)

I would look up who sent it to me and complain.  You might not get your credit back but maybe you'll prevent them from sending other books out this way. 

I've started carefully going through books before I mark them received.  I received a couple when I first joined that I didn't really inspect.   Then when I went to read them a week or 2 later I noticed they had stains or were "cleaved" a bit and should't have been posted. 

I got the same vision Candy did as I was reading this thread.

Yeah, my vision is The Church Lady from SNL, LOL...

I'm done being pizzed - I'm just sorta sick that I have to - what - toss the book?  My niece may want to read it....scibbles and all.

This is one of the strangest things that a person can do to a book.  What do they do when they are watching TV....scream everyone time somewhere swears?  I agree that it's fine if you don't like it, but how silly to mark them all out.  You've already seen them!

Amanda, when VCRs just started being popular in the mid '80s we would rent a VHS to watch as a family.  When the racy sexy scenes came on, my dad FF'd through every one of them.   We kids would rent a movie on the weekend when both my parents were gone so we could enjoy the R-rated scenes without worrying we were missing a vital part of the story.

They never objected to anything we read, though the racier Judy Blume books were known to be banned at school.  I gather they talked about the books at a PTA meeting because the school taught sex ed starting in 4th grade (unless the parents opted not to have their kids take part).  One day someone of us said, "You can't read that here!" and it started all the girls on a quest to read all her books.  I guess we all snuck around to read them at home in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade then traded them with the other girls for a book we hadn't read.

At the elementary school where I used to work, one of the fourth grade teachers once blacked out words in a book that her entire class was reading together. Evidently, Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor has a few objectional words, or so the teacher thought.  IMO, blacking out words would only inspire the students to try to discover what the "dirty" word was. Otherwise, they would probably have just breezed by it.

This is a little different but I received a brand new copy of Fudge Cupcake Murder and didn't check every page before I marked it received. Apparently there were a few misspelled words and ones the person didn't think were appropriate in the sentence, so they circled and underlined the words and rewrote them in ink!!! I, too, can't repost the book thanks to them.

That is the dumbest thing I ever heard of!  It wouldn't even occur to me to check for something like this since it wouldn't have even occurred to me that someone would get so offended by words to cross them out.  I mean, wow, grow up already!  They're just words!  They don't vanish off the earth just because you scribbled in a book!

Damn it!  That would make me mad.

Let's hope the culprit's entire bookshelf isn't similarly edited!  There are few (adult) fiction books on my shelves that would pass the test, I suspect.  I had a similar experience with Judy Blume books as a kid- after word got around that some teachers/parents were objecting to the "mature themes" every girl in the class made sure she read it!  L, perhaps you could use the book to play madlibs, having someone who hasn't read it fill in the blanks for you & then reading the completed text out loud (of course, at my slumber parties that meant with the dirtiest words we could think of!)

I hope no one does that to a copy of Atonement.  otherwise the next reader will be missing out on a VITAL part of the story. 

My mental vision of the scribbler was entirely different because I just finished reading Precious Blood by Jonathan Hayes.  See how books influence our thinking?