About 3 months ago, after a friend who was feeling rather down thinking back to our glorious days in Paris paid a visit, I lent him one of my favourite books of all time;
Flowers for Mrs Harris by Paul Gallico. Although I find all of his writing (that I have had the opportunity to read so far) charming, this is my absolute favourite. And I will never get it back.
Luckily (for him, that is) it was not the beautiful copy to the right, but I am still frustrated, more so with myself. Although all of the key elements in the storyline were simply
made for him; working class lady, travelling to Paris, buying a Dior dress...he has only read half of it and every request to have it back will forever more be met with 'oh, can I just read the rest of it first?' ....and the willingness within me to share a good story with anyone and everyone will win out every time.
So, should we lend the books we love or not? Only to the people we know will give them back perhaps? But who is to say they will? I suppose we can always buy them again, but nothing stings quite as much for me than losing a good book. Perhaps the way to eliminate any flight risk is to stamp our names in them so that the thief will one day be reminded of where the book belongs? (love you auntie :-) :-*)
I think I'll always be too keen to share a story with people to stop lending, and then gutted when the second reader doesn't get as much out of it as I did........*sigh* ... bye bye Mrs 'Arris, for now.....
The more I find people online who share my reading tastes the less interest I have in sharing my books with friends or relatives who probably won't appreciate them as much as I do. Sometimes if I know I want to share a book I find a cheap copy or a duplicate that I don't mind never seeing again. And as for Flowers for Mrs 'Arris, I absolutely love that book. It made me smile from beginning to end.
ReplyDeleteI have learnt my lesson in this you know, and I see what you mean. There are so many people out there that you suddenly discover do care as much as you do about these books and even perhaps for rabbiting on in so much detail about why they like them that it almost doesn't matter whether friends/family in the 'real world' like the books I recommend or not.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, I am now the proud owner of the above copy of Flowers for Mrs 'Arris, and my dear friend can now take as long as he bloomin' well likes to devour it :-D Such a lovely lovely heartwarming story. My mum recently bought 'Mrs 'Arris goes to New York' ..have you read it?