When I pick up a book, one of the first things I instinctively do is glance at the dedication. I blame CS Lewis for this. I picked up ‘The lion, the witch and the wardrobe’ as a kid and remember being bowled over by his dedication to his granddaughter. Ever since, I’ve been fascinated by the idea of having a piece of literature dedicated to someone. It’s also intriguing trying to disseminate the relationship between the author and the person their oeuvre is dedicated to – at times it’s public (For X, my loving wife and rock solid pillar etc etc) and at times, i’ts fantastically cryptic (A few initials, a private message, an inside joke)
10 points to Hufflepuff if you can guess which books/authors these are from. 50 points if you write a book and dedicate it to me (My nine year old self would be over the moon)
A life of Saturdays 
I always read the dedication and the acknowledgments at the back of the book before I start- some how sets the context for what I’m about to read, I think.
There’s also the handwritten notes on second-hand books that were once presents. So intriguing.
Great post!
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House Of Leaves opens with “This is not for you”.
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Love the post! I always read the acknowledgements!
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Brilliant post… I’ve always loved reading the dedications…
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I love reading the acknowledgements and dedications too. I read every word of the book – sometimes even the publishing details. 🙂
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So Do I, the edition, the printer, typefaces and all!
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Thanks all 🙂
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Split seven ways. Yeah that’s the only one I got. 😀 Love the post.
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I love this post! Book dedications intrigue me too.
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I too always read the acknowledgement and dedication pages. I think the book is fun when you read the every page of the book except the page where rates and publishing company name is printed 😛
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