Are you a Book Nazi?

[Kell]

I had a very interesting chat with my brother-in-law (sister's hubby) a few days ago. Apparently I'm the only person who actually lends him "interesting books" to read. However, I had heard through my sister that he's always terrified every time I lend him a book, as they always look, as he put it, "virgin", & he worries about cracking the spine or leaving it any less pristine than it was when he was given it.

Now, I have always thought of myself as pretty laid-back & easy-going. I know I'm pretty anal about how I keep my own books & how I treat the books belonging to others, but I'm well aware that sometimes the spines get craced through reading & it's nobody's fault - & that's alright, I really don't mind! I know that sometimes they won't necessarily come back to me looking brand new, but that's alright too, as they're NOT brand new - by this time, they'll have been read several times.

My sister, on the other hand, has my copy of Memoirs of a Geisha (which she hasn't yet started) & she claims she'll take great delight & cracking the spine (hah! it's already cracked as I got it 2nd hand - bwahaha!).

I just wonder where this perception of me being a Book Nazi, who will punish anyone who touches my books without kid gloves on their greasy mitts, has come from? Has anyone else had comments of this kind about themselves? Or is it just me?

[Michelle]

I lent someone a brand new book (Labyrinth), and it came back with loads of spine creases. So I guess she wasn't scared of me! LOL

[abecedarian]

It really doesn't sound like its you at all. Sounds like its your sister and brother in law who have the hangup. It probably started as a joke and pretty soon became cemented in their heads that you have a 'thing' about how your books are treated. Its a way of bringing you down a peg or two to tease you about "your" neatnik ways, when its really based on their own perceptions. For fun, next time you loan them a book, put it in a ziplock baggie and enclose a pair of latex gloves and a note that says, "Gotcha!"

[Kell]

LOL! I think I'll do that - cpmplete with a notice inside saying "Handle with care!". :lol:

[abecedarian]

:lol: LOL! I think I'll do that - cpmplete with a notice inside saying "Handle with care!". :lol:


And if you can make up a highly detailed list of totally impossible rules to follow in regards to care of your book-specially if its a beat up copy you bought at a boot sale...make sure those rules couldn't be followed without them having supernatural powers.Then say "Gotcha":tease: :harhar: :angel_not:

[Lilywhite]

I must admit I am a bit of a 'book Nazi'. I don't mind general wear and tear but if my books get ruined because of carelessness then I get really mad but I suppose that goes for all my stuff. If I lend it out then I expect it to be taken care of, although I do know accidents happen...... as long as they were accidents :lol:

[abecedarian]

I'm to the point where I don't like to borrow stuff from anyone. There's been too many times where one of my kids damaged an item and I felt like I had to replace it. What I really really hate with a purple passion, are those extended loans -where the lender says, You can have this as long as you need it..then just give it back when you're done...this is for stuff that will probably be landfill fodder by the time their usefulness is over:irked:

[muggle not]

Kell, perhaps the comment wasn't as serious as you thought. It may have been an off-hand complement as to how nice you keep things.

[abecedarian]

Kell, perhaps the comment wasn't as serious as you thought. It may have been an off-hand complement as to how nice you keep things.

That's true..not that you can't play a joke on them anyway..but mugglenot has a valid point too.

[Kell]

Actually, I just asked him outright about it & it seems he really does worry about my books when he has them - it's kind of sweet really, but at the same time, unwarranted - if I was all that bothered, i wouldn't let him out of the flat with them in the first place - LOL!

[abecedarian]

Actually, I just asked him outright about it & it seems he really does worry about my books when he has them - it's kind of sweet really, but at the same time, unwarranted - if I was all that bothered, i wouldn't let him out of the flat with them in the first place - LOL!


That's true, common sense dictates that we don't loan what we can't bear to lose.

However..I DO have a story about a book I received through interlibrary loan once...
I'd requested a G.A. Henty book and didn't notice the publication date. I just assumed it was a reprint and was shocked to get to the library to find an original edition, tied up with a piece of yarn, inside a baggie, with a note from the lending librarian saying, "This is OLD and fragile, please handle with care!" Like I could be comfortable handling this volume NOW???:roll:

[Sofia]

I once had a brand new book that only I read once...lent it out and came back full of dog ears and a ripped cover....last time I lent her a book:irked:

[pontalba]

I once had a brand new book that only I read once...lent it out and came back full of dog ears and a ripped cover....last time I lent her a book:irked:
Barbarian! :weeping:

[dogmatix]

My problem isn't that they come back in poor condition it's that they never come back at all :censored: I HATE lending books. I'd rather cough up the dough and buy someone a book ( my favorite gift to give anyways) so I don't have that waiting and wondering over my head.

[Sofia]

My problem isn't that they come back in poor condition it's that they never come back at all :censored: I HATE lending books. I'd rather cough up the dough and buy someone a book ( my favorite gift to give anyways) so I don't have that waiting and wondering over my head.
that happens to me...but it's usually with videos:roll:

[JohnT]

I am only a book Nazi when it comes to my technical books such as Windows XP Registry repair, or my time life series for home repairs. If the books are for just general pleasure and not a learning series than I don't get angry.

[Kell]

The truth is, i only led to people in the first place if I think they're the type to have respect for someone else's belongings. Obviously, some wear occurs with repeat reading & I don't mind that, but folks just taking a little care is all it takes - I don't need them to be anal about it at all. :smile2:

Plus, in the case of my B-I-L - I know where he lives if he DID wreck a book of mine purposely!:lol:

[Thomas Merton]

Books, just like everything else you can put your hand on, are just things.

And things you cannot take with you when you die. There are no pockets in a shroud.

On the other hand, the ideas contained within books, IMHO are a completely different matter.

Thank God we have a brain to remember, a spirit to rework and a soul to perpetuate.

[Galactic Space Hamster]

I just regard my books like anything else that own and would lend somebody. Be it a book, DVD, game, album, or whatever I expect them to treat it with care and return it in the condition that I lent it :)

[Angel]

I tend to not lend my books! I once had a bestselling paperback as a birthday present - lent it to my sister-in-law and never saw it again:censored: . My mother recently damaged one of my books and she spent at least a week apologising 'cos she knows my feelings on book damage!!! (I did forgive her;) )

[muggle not]

Feelings on the subject sometimes change as a person gets older. I also felt like many of you when lending a book. I expected it back within a reasonable time and in good condition. I remember lending a book to my wife's brother-in-law and him not returning it for a good number of years and how it bothered me. And now, at my age, I am giving my books away (to the library).

[Thomas Merton]

And now, at my age, I am giving my books away (to the library).

I did this when we moved back to the UK, three years ago.

Approximately 1,000 books and over 500 cd's.

Once the decision was taken, all feelings of ownership or loss were replaced by the knowledge that others would soon be enjoying the riches I had once discovered for the first time.

[Acesare*]

I don't really think about what might happen to my property if I lend it to someone, just that I want them to read it because I think they'll enjoy it. A couple of people have still got books I lent to them years ago, and I barely remember! I ended up pinching a book back from my Dad after he kept it for 4 years and forgot it was mine!

If I borrow something, I always try to keep it in the condition I received it as a matter of respect for them. I was gutted when someone knowed a book I'd borrowed from Kell, out of my hand on the tube and the cover bent!

[Kell]

It was still in excellent condition when it came back, so I was & I am more than happy - & i'm more than happy to lend my books to such a thoughtful person as yourself, Jo.:smile2:

[Acesare*]

Aw, shucks :blush:

[Sugar]

My friends have commented that they feel they have to be really careful with my books as I too tend to keep them in nearly new condition. I was amazed, as like you, Kell, I wouldn't lend them if I was that worried about them getting wrecked!

[Icecream]

I think I would be upset if one of my uni textbooks, or folios came back ruined. They are very nice books. Fiction books are different.

[Maureen]

I keep my fiction books in really good condition, however I do scribble (lightly in pencil) in the margins of textbooks sometimes. It does not really do any harm IMO.

[jenmck]

Actually, I just asked him outright about it & it seems he really does worry about my books when he has them - it's kind of sweet really, but at the same time, unwarranted - if I was all that bothered, i wouldn't let him out of the flat with them in the first place - LOL!

Well, that's the way I feel about it. I'm careful with other people's books--I don't fold the corner of a page or lay it down open to a page--but I'm not so careful with my own. My books are read again and again. They tend to look it. LOL.
I think there was another thread where I turned myself in for this behavior.:smile2:
I usually don't loan something out unless I don't really expect to see it again. It's better that way. If it's that important, I may tell them to be really careful and that I'd like it back in two weeks or something.
I have little kids and puppies, so getting attached to "stuff" isn't too wise for my sanity.

[Oblomov]

If possessiveness about one's books is being a "Book Nazi", then I am the Fuhrer himself. Nobody but nobody touches my books without my permission (and that goes for the wife as well) and on the rare occasions that I do lend someone a book, I check out their CV first and then put the fear of God into them to make sure that they look after it well. I am not ashamed of this attitude at all.

[Liz]

I reckon the previous owners of my Germany & Weimar Republic textbook cannot possibly have been Book Nazis. There are pages in it which are almost impossible to read due to little drawings all over the place. I don't mind annotations, but I'm not so keen on having these little pictures throughout the book.

[Gyre]

Hi Kell

I do not think you are a book nazi at all, you just like your belongings to be looked after and you know that sometimes things happen, it does not make you scary, well not to me anyway. x

[kitty]

I am so bad when people lend me books. I start to worry knowing it would be rude not to lend them some of mine.

One of the things I do, is loan them out from the Library, and them pass them to the friend. :blush: I just carnt stand the thought of my books looking read.

[Adam]

LOL, I hate lending books out because I know i'll never get them back. Books are the one thing that never get returned. As far as condition goes I crack the spines of my books. I think it gives them character :D