Like, no, reading my book in the shower is not okay.
I am not even exaggerating when I say this. In fourth grade, I let my teacher's high school (!) girl borrow my book. Three months later (this deserves another !) she returned it. Yeah, it was all wrinkled like it had gone swimming and not dried off properly. There was water paint colors on the inside pages. She ANNOTATED and HIGHLIGHTED some of the text. I can't EVEN begin to describe how angry I was.
.gif)
.gif)
I understand annotating and highlighting text in your own book but when you start annotating and highlighting text in a book that isn't yours, we have a problem. And don't forget the shower thing! I asked her why my book was like that and she said, "Oh, yeah. It was getting really good but my mom said I had to take a shower so..."
ONCE AGAIN.
.gif)
Clearly, as you can see I have issues with letting people borrow my books. And I am not the only person with this problem! I was talking to Utterly Books on Twitter, and she told me a story about her friend.
@Tori_Gory it's okay, I lent over 50 books to a friend a year ago and she gave them all to good will.
— Sydney (@utterlybookish) February 6, 2014
Let me just rage some more.
This just frustrates me so much. I don't understand how some people—especially your friends!—can't get it through their skulls that ruining other people's books is not okay.
As another example, I lent my friend a copy of one of my ARC's for him to read. Yes, he didn't even finish it because he thought it was boring, so he gave it back to me, and the corner was bent. I didn't even bother saying anything to him. The fact that he's my best friend and he still didn't respect my high regard that I have for schools says a lot about our friendship.
I just...can't. I'm sorry. This was more of a rant post, but...
UGH I totally get you on that. Truthfully, I haven't lent out a lot of books in my lifetime, simply because most of my friends don't really read, and if they do, they don't read the books I do (and of course, they read in German, not in English, like I do). But every time I have lent out a book, I had to wait months before I got it back, and while they then mostly did read them at least (small fortune), they would always be in worse condition. That's why I'm so nervous about lending any books, a friend of mine has been wanting to start reading English books for a while now and she's always nagging me about lending her one of mine but I just ... I DON'T WANT TO. ;_; And now, on Friday, a classmate of mine asked me if I could lend her Reckless 2 by Cornelia Funke, but I know that our school library has that book and she has a card, so I'm very tempted to tell her to just get it from the library. I don't know though, that would be kind of rude and impolite, so ... I don't know. T_T What would you do in my situation?
ReplyDeleteI lent out books a lot this year so far, and I don't even know why! Most of my friends have been taking care of my books. It was mostly in the past, but I'm still very anxious. But I'm literally my class's library! I don't have issues with the language thing, because I only read English book, ahha.
DeleteAnd you don't have to give your friend the book if you don't want to! I mostly lend because I want people to read amazing books that I'm in love with, like Angelfall and such. (:
I sympathise with you! I know exactly how you feel! I don't have a problem with buying used books either, but if I buy a brand new book, I do my best to keep it in the best condition possible! I rarely lend out books anymore because of getting my books back destroyed (at least in my opinion..."destroyed" includes even the tiny bend or crease of a paperbacks corner in my eyes) or not getting them returned at all! I recently lent out a book to a friend, and I thought it would be okay cause she likes books too, but now I'm really nervous that it's not going to be in the same condition when I get it back and I don't think she's even started it yet and I don't care, I'm just going to get it back off of her because it's getting on my nerves way too much...sorry for that little rant! I didn't realise just how much it annoyed me that I don't have my book on my shelves.
ReplyDeleteExactly! Used books don't bother me, because they're already "damaged," if they're even damaged. But if I buy a book with my own money, I want to take very good care of it, because...well...it's my baby. <3
DeleteAnd oh my gosh, yes! A tiny bend or crease of paperbacks makes me want to cry especially when it's brand new books that I've bought. I received a few like this from Amazon, and I was a bit bent out of shape, but I didn't want to have to go through the hassle of returning them. :l
Haha, I gave my ARC of Cress to my friend because I don't want it on my shelves, and I have the finished copy so I'm meh about keeping it. :P She took really great care of it though! I've given her a ton of books and she always returns them in perfect condition (she is not the same friend who donated 50 of my books to Good Will). She actually lent her copy of Insurgent to her friend, and her friend has completely ruined the pages. So annoying! It makes you not want to lend books to people, which isn't the purpose of books!
ReplyDeleteLately I've had NO problem buying used books, so long as they're in decent/near-perfect condition (no ripped covers, no overly bent pages, etc.). The used bookstore closest to me usually has pretty great books, too! I'm just so tired of giving books to people and having them returned in horrid condition. I'm sort of neurotic and take off the jackets of hardcovers before lending them out. :B Nothing could piss me off more than ripping my dust jacket asdfghjkl.
Haha, great discussion Tori!
Yeah, I lent my ARC of Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy out to two of my friends. One read it and bent the edge, and the other read it and didn't return it for three weeks even though she read it in two days. :l
DeleteAnd yes! I have a friend like this. She's very cautious with my books and always returns them after reading in the same condition as they were in when I lent them to her, so she's always welcome to my bookshelf. I love getting people to read more. (:
Yeah, I've been spending most of my time on BookOutlet.com. Whenever I have money, I buy books from them. They're pretty good with shipping (1-2 weeks, at most. I got my order of 6 books in a week and a half!), and the book's condition when marked used is usually pretty good.
Lol, I always take the dust jacket off when reading because they just piss me off while I'm reading. I don't want the dust jacket getting in the way of me enjoying the story!
Thanks!