I have a great book to recommend you guys. Something that you just have to read. An amazing masterpiece that changed my life. The crème de la crème of literature. You have no idea how I enjoyed reading it. A book that I couldn’t leave for a second and I swallowed with my breath taken.
Yes, I have this book.
No, you can’t have it.
I do not lend books. I have this sort of an issue. I will not willingly see a book get out of my apartment in the hands of somebody else. I know it’s not that nice of me to give such warm recommendations about a book and then prevent you reading them, but I am sorry, my library is not public, and I don’t give fines to late returners.
Want to borrow my car? No problem. Fancy some of my clothes? With pleasure. A cat? Please do. The books stay where they belong.
I used to let people take any book they wanted. Guess what? They never returned. So I started writing my name inside the book. How much did it help? It didn’t. You might say I got burnt. So I stopped lending books. Want to read the book? Buy it. Don’t want to buy? Go to the public library. It is free, it is comfortable, and if you don’t return the books, they know how to handle you.
Take a look at your library. How many of the books are not yours? How many of your books are missing? I know my library was much bigger if I would have sober up earlier.
Everybody knows it. Once someone borrows one of your books, you will most likely never see it again. After a couple of weeks, you will forget about it and then it is gone. When you look for that book a year or two later, you will suddenly remember that you’ve lent it, but you will forget who took it. And even if you remember, would you really call them and demand a book they borrowed five years ago? After all, the book hasn’t been in their possession for years now. They gave it to their sister who promised to take good care of it right before she passed it to her best friend that gave it to the kid’s kindergarten teacher, which in her turn, lent it to her husband’s colleague.
I am sorry, but I am taking myself out of this viral distribution.