Books Beware

Today I finished up Julie & Julia. It was a wonderfully entertaining book! I borrowed the book from a friend, as I couldn't find it at any local library and just didn't want to spend the money to buy it as I knew I wanted to see the move and wanted to save my money for a Coke, popcorn and Junior Mints when I went. (shout out to Kathryn, thank you :) Any-hoo. The book was given to me in I-just-came-off-the-store-bookshelf-quality. I even wondered for a minute if my friend had read it, though I know she did. She is anxious for me to finish so we can talk about it. The spine didn't have a crack to it, the pages weren't bent and the cover didn't curl up on the sides. My MIL also gives me books she's read, "trashy novels" that I read in two days. LOVE THEM! They too come to me in excellent shape, all of them!

I've finished reading the book, like I said way back at the beginning of this, and now I must return the book to my friend. I'm looking at the book and I'm wondering what happened to it in the week I had it? I mean the cover is bent in two places and the edges curl up at the sides, the spine is all splintered and some of the pages even curl up a bit. I know there's some greasy finger prints on the inside, I was enjoying the pizza & the book at the same time! And it got wet! I just picked it up and it's wet a bit and so now the pages will curl up with that I got wet look. Wow, I'm not so nice to books when I read them!!

I take the books with me on the go, into the car, they get thrown into my purse, on the seat of the car, sometimes they even land on the floor of the house and get knocked around a bit. I take books to the gym and read as a cycle away, holding on to the book w/sweaty hands. I put books on the icky gym floor to use the weights. I put books through the ringer.

I was going to pose the question, "is this normal?" But really, I have my answer. I'm the one who is unkind to books. I have two other people who read books and then hand them over to me in pristine, bookshelf quality and after I've read them there is NO question they've been read. I use our local library a lot and most of those books are hardback thank goodness or I'm sure they'd come looking for me.

I contemplated learning a new way of reading, maybe even googling the subject of how to read a book without trashing it all to hell. But ya know, that's just not my life, that's not how I deal with things around me. I touch things, I squeeze things, I carry things, I bend and twist things, heck I put holes in perfectly good Tupperware so my son can keep the beetle he just caught! I'm on the go, I'm stuck in the car while my youngest son naps. I'm at the gym trying to work off that "baby weight" from my five year old. I turn to a book as something to help me relax and recharge and yes, escape! If I also had to worry too much about how I treated them all the joy of reading might get sucked away.

So, though I'm not so nice to books, I love them just the same. I guess when it comes to handling books I'm like a boy on the school playground with the girls, I hit you and push you, but deep down I love you.