A month ago I found an ex libris bookplate – ie. “this book belongs to ..” – in an old, used book. It looked like this:

The text is in Norse, and is based on saying 58 in Håvamål. It means “rarely does sleeping man win victory”. I love it, both the literal and the metaphorical meaning. So I played around with the picture, and made this:

Ie. I saw something that I liked, (thank you mr Tischendorf, whoever you were!), and I made it my own. And then I had it sent to an online printer of stickers. I’m going to place this in all the books that I read from now on.

This is such a nerdy thing to do. It’s possibly even retarded. But I love that picture, (I may change the design later, but not the slogan). And I believe in doing retarded things, if they’re unusual.

It’s not original, though. Bookplates have a long tradition among bibliophiles. Perhaps it’s time to revive it?