Hi all,

I just wanted to share a reminder and a lesson learned: please put your name, and some sort of identifier in each of your books, and make a catalog or database of all of your books.

My home was effectively broken into and all of my books (including all my cookbooks) and entire music library amongst other things were stolen last weekend.  I hadn't ever actually put my name in each of my books because I abhor the idea of writing in a book that I dearly love, but now I'm paying the price.  I'd guessed that whoever stole my property was going to try to sell it (classical cds, cookbooks, scifi/fantasy books) at the huge Half Price Books nearby.

DF and I happened to be passing by, and on a spur of the moment decided to stop in and try to find me a new cookbook to make me feel better about this past week.  I happened to poke around my favourite sections and see a cookbook I knew I had owned.  Picked it up and flipped through it, and there was the business card of my podiatrist in CT, still used as a bookmark! We hunted down a manager and the on-site police officer immediately, to show them.

However, because I cannot conclusively (ie point to my name in the book) prove that each of the books we found belong to me, but they are only possible since I once owned them and the date they were priced matches the timeline, their legal dept will have to sort through it.  We even found one that has my handwritten recipes in it, but because my name isn't in it, it's inconclusive.

Please, please take the time to write your name in your books or stick a label on the cover, since books cannot be resold without a cover. Our beloved cookbooks unfortunately have a very high turnover at the used bookstores, and as we all know, can be very pricey to replace.

Sephie