<p>Am I the only one who loves looking at the previous owners of my textbooks? It always makes me feel like part of a legacy of sorts to see who used the same exact book I'm using. This happens especially in the advanced classes. In multivariate calc, I happened to get the same textbook that was used by my elementary school mentor who taught me Lego Logo.</p>
<p>I always imagine somebody in a few years seeing my name and saying "I think I've heard of him!" or "Wasn't he _____?" </p>
<p>Maybe I'm just attaching too much sentimental value to the list of names, but I am not normally a sentimental guy.</p>
<p>I do that with textbooks and library books for the same reason; we have had a few textbooks where I was the last one to check it out, although it had been in use for the last 50 years, and there were two cards' worth of names. I even found a 1960 course guide for my high school buried in a stack of books in the physics room. That was rather interesting, since it was from back when the school only had four APs and people still learned Algebra III, had glee club as a major EC, had a branch of NHS, ranked students, was nearly all-white and vocational courses still existed.</p>
<p>my 9th grade geometry book had previously belonged to the Valedictorian of 2006 (and i'm #1 in my class). My current AP chemistry book previously belonged to the Salutatorian of 2006.</p>
<p>Reading names of previous owners is fun to do when bored. I had a beat-up textbook last year that had 14 previous owners (of which some ended up at pretty good schools) and really nice notes in it. They can offer some other subtle clues about people, like if a book smells faintly of weed, or cigarettes, or perfume.</p>
<p>I do that all the time...in middle school I did it, and then when I got to high school, I got some of the same peoples' book handed down to me....pretty lame, but awesome at the same time.</p>
<p>I don't like writing my names in books that are over 20 years old...I don't like the idea on putting my name on that...only the books that I know will be used and eventually be gone within 5 years' time...</p>
<p>There was a message in my AP world book talking about how we shouldn't take AP Calc and AP English at the same time as World. And about how World caused her to have no social life. It was a warning and hilarious :].</p>
<p>My AP chem book is in its second year of use. The previous owner signed it "Tu Pac" and wrote under the first column, "Clean," and the second, "Bloody." He got a 5 on the AP exam.</p>