I have a large collection of books in my home. History, science, good fiction, bestsellers, travel… I go through a book a week, and I have been doing it for a few decades, so the library keeps building up.
Visitors to my home are taken aback by the abundance of books. Within minutes the more intelligent ones will gravitate towards a bookshelf, start scanning the titles and then the trouble begins.
“Looks like an interesting book, have you read it?” Idiot. Why do you think the book is lying there? Of course I have read it.
Inevitably I will mumble about how boring the book is, you should read another book by the author, not your kind of read at all, anything to discourage a request to borrow the book.
When it comes to books friends and guests can be quite shameless. Sooner or later they will ask to borrow the book. Over the years I have learned how to handle such people.
Write the title of the book, author’s name, price and bookshop address on a post it and hand it to the person. This takes cares of about a third of the people.
“People who borrow books don’t read them, something to do with not investing time in selecting the title”. A comment like this will stop another one-third.
“Which was the last book you read?” This question embarrasses most people since they don’t read and should take care of the rest of borrowers.
Some may still persist. And that’s how books leave my home, never to return, never to be opened again, lying abandoned in some ignoramus’ house.
Never ever lend a book.
