There is little that aggravates me more than when I borrow a library book and discover that someone else has written all over it. Seriously, people. Your personal book: write away. A book that belongs to the library that I support with my tax dollars: writing utensils off, inconsiderate mister or miz. I believe that this sort of thing falls firmly in the category of what the British like to call “anti-social behaviour.”
Last summer sometime, I borrowed a volume from the local library that contained three Nick Hornby books: High Fidelity, Fever Pitch, and About a Boy, only to discover that someone had gone through High Fidelity with a pencil and underlined presumably key words on every single page. The problem is that I have no idea what the method behind their madness was—there is no discernible theme, other than to cause me significant personal distress, of course.
And so, dear Internets, I offer you this painstakingly compiled list of underlined words from High Fidelity in hopes that you can help solve the mystery. Anyone?
drag
swings
roundabout
wingboat
dash your brains
clonk them on the head
squeaky voices
preposterous
parity
utterly bewildered
defies
snog
I stung
convey
scrounged
chucked
rut
fester
wrestled
wit
derisory
traitors, fifth columnists
molestation
she tucks her stomach in
clumsy
hell-bent
stumped for
soiled
outraged
loathed
knobbed
deception
mock-adult
sobriety
fickle world
nurture
social compasses
draw a new circle of friends
lumbered
scorn
cropped
strained
irresistible
ardent
fraud
splodge
flamboyance
fretful
punters
too witty
dimmest
averse
impeccable
crooked teeth
wanker
rejoiced
sulk
hold-all
sobering
relentlessly
gibberish
horn
groan
bristling
bollocks
smug smile
faded, shrunken tatty M&S scraps
dressing gown
chuckles
merrily
crush on somebody
smitten with Sarah
devotion
pillock
flicking her hair
inanely
chucked
dread
contorted
consummated
demon
clinging
dodgy
taut-looking
scowls
sponges off
dispense with awkward conversation
chap
shove
boxy
bum
self-deprecating
unfathomably
fret
diffidence
whingeing
tadpole
whatsit
saliva
spunk
crotchety
appalled
busting up
jerking
grittier
half-wit
2 Comments
maybe it was words that they didn’t understand . . . or words that they would like to use themselves, one day. That is very frustrating!
I know! At first I thought it was someone trying to understand British slang (probably a bit of projection on my part!), but nope. I think my favorite is “faded, shrunken tatty M&S scraps.”