Books

For a long time now I have abstained from lending books to people, unless I was sure they would take good care of them and return them in as pristine a condition as when removed from my library. Sometimes I have to make my reluctance so apparent that the prospective borrower gets the message and withdraws his request. This may sound uncharitable on my part, but from knowing the reputation of the borrower either personally or through hearsay, this may be the only way I know to avoid disappointment when it comes to preserving the integrity of my beautiful and rather extensive library.

The worst sort of book borrower is probably the one who defaces the book, and I mean one who does so deliberately, by writing in it. A printed work is not a scratch pad. One does not use end-papers for memoranda or doodles, no matter how desperate the need for recording a telephone number or a making a shopping list. I have had several experiences with borrowers—relatives often are the worst—that have left an indelible mark upon my psyche. Never again can they be trusted with one of my books.

Some people regard paperback books as disposable, and have been known to carry them around in jeans pockets, where the curvature of their posteriors will give the borrowed book a broken spine, and loosen the pages from their binding. I knew someone who, on finishing a few chapters, would tear off the part of a paperback novel already read to give to someone waiting to read it. For me that’s sheer sacrilege.

We have an obligation to return books to their owners, but too often this obligation is not taken seriously. For some, it would appear that a book is nothing more a newspaper, to be read once and then discarded. They have no regard for the beauty of the book as a work of art and a thing of value, sometimes even of a value beyond price. Bibliophiles they are not.

Books should be physically cared for. Dust seems to collect on books more readily than on other surfaces. Which of us has not had occasion to blow away the dust when taking a book down from a shelf. A regular sweep with a duster along the tops of books should be a regular part of one's cleaning chores.

(All right, already. Enough of this pomposity at the start of a new year, wherein so much of greater importance than the care and preservation of old tomes await our attention.)

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