Has anyone ever had a mishap with a book?

[BookJumper]

Books being a well known explosive of course!

Well, as we all know the pen is mightier than etc. etc. etc.

[nicx27]

I once dropped a book in a mug of hot chocolate. There was a brown stain all over one corner - I was gutted!

[BookJumper]

I once dropped a book in a mug of hot chocolate. There was a brown stain all over one corner - I was gutted!

I'm impressed by your skill was it a very big mug, a very small book, or a combination of factors?

[ladymacbeth]

As a child (many years ago)........I remember being travel sick all over my favourite pussycat book and it had to be binned in a layby bin! I was heartbroken and never did get another copy of it!

 

My parents banned reading in the car after just such an incident when my brother puked. I can read on all other forms of public transport but to this day still feel sick if I try to read in the car.

[sayrha]

I normally end up spilling coffee on mine and then feel absolutely gutted about the fact I wasn't more careful

[nicx27]

I once dropped a book in a mug of hot chocolate. There was a brown stain all over one corner - I was gutted!

I'm impressed by your skill was it a very big mug, a very small book, or a combination of factors?

 

I was reading in bed at the time and had the mug in one hand and the book in the other, and it just sort of fell into it It was a normal sized paperback, but I can't recall the size of the mug.

Edited August 27, 2010 by nicx27

[angelstar]

once left book on airplane was upset contacted airline they were very good by time I got back to heathrow week later a note was handed to me from stewardess saying a copy was at home they had bought me new copy that is what I call service

[chesilbeach]

The only mishaps I can remember tend to be the fault of the printers rather than me. I'm not particularly precious about books, as I buy them to read, so although I don't go out of my way to damage them, they taken in and out of my handbag, and I sometimes hold them open with the edge of my dinner plate so I can carry on reading while eating. On particularly cheap bindings though, simply turning the pages and holding the book open, can often lead to pages coming loose, and I have had a few occasions where I've had to sellotape pages back into a book, especially if it's been one that's been read over and over again, or it's an old book from the 1970s or 1980s that I've decided to reread where the glue seems to have dried out and when you turn the pages the glue disintegrates. If I get books like this, I tend to try and get a new copy if I want to read it again.

 

No major spillages or dunkings to report though.

[emelee]

This summer I was reading by a public pool. Not very wise, cause a lot of kids were around splashing water as they jumped in. The book I was reading got quite wet due to one kid.........

[Kreader]

I keep books and water/fluids far apart. No books in either the bathroom or kitchen. I took books with me when I went camping sleeping in a tent and I put each of them in a zip sealed plastic bag. I do sometimes smudge printing ink with my fingers. I have to use creams on my hands due to allergies/skin condition and this seems to make printing ink messy.

[WooWoo]

I was reading a Very Very old copy of Pride and Prejudice outside in my garden on a sunny but windy day, I let go of one side of the book to reach for a drink and the worst thing happened! Some of the pages blew across the garden, there was me running around like a headless chicken trying to grab them all.

 

Luckily I managed to retrieve each page, although most were quite soggy and bit dirty. I want best impressed, reading inside certainly is best

[Chonsim]

I haven't had a mishap myself, but I was the "victim" of someone else's mishap...or actually maybe it was more of someone else's disgusting habit.

 

I was happily reading a Barbara Vine book I had taken out of the library (The Brimstone Wedding) when I noticed that it seemed like the previous person to read it had been eating crackers over the pages. Upon closer inspection I realised to my horror, these were not cracker crumbs, but bits and pieces of fingernail and skin - dried callous skin!!! I think they had been peeling their callouses over the pages of this book. Yuck! And I was reading it in bed. Double yuck!

 

Book promptly shut, returned to the library unfinished, and the poor librarian practically picked it up using only two fingers when I told her what was within the pages.

 

To date I have still to get another copy and finish that book. Which is a shame because I was actually quite enjoying it.

[Nienna]

Deluxe edition of LOTR - worth about £300. I spilt milkshake all over them. >:|

 

Let us talk no more of this.

[Yellow Wallpaper]

I was getting on the bus one day, where drinks are strictly forbidden. I stupidly stuck my chai tea in my purse and as I got off the bus it sloshed all over. Unfortunately it was a library book, but I got most of it off to the point that they didn't notice.

[Lucybird]

The lid of my waterbottle broke the other day and drenched my copy of Vanity Fair to the point where it's no longer read-able in parts.

[Rick]

I fell asleep reading Deathly Hallows, and my cat decided to try and sharpen his claws on it. So, I had to re-buy the book lol. and I tend to smoke while I read and had the heater fall off on a page - and burnt through several pages - so I had to re-buy that book as well (a)

[ladymacbeth]

Yesterday my husband washed a library book in with my clothes. I went back to the library and paid for the destroyed book - they looked slightly suspicious as it was brand new and I was the first to get the book out as I had it on request. And I hadn't even read it yet.

 

Then I came home and spent a hour brushing paperback slurry out of my clothes. We are still rewashing today. Imagine 12 boxes of tissues in the wash and that is the extent of the laundry catastrophe.

[Kylie]

Oh dear Ladymacbeth! Good of you to replace the book though.

[NightOwl]

I loaned a book to my friend once - note the 'once' here - and it was weeks later that she finally confessed to the fact that her two Rottweillers had found the book on the windowsill and decided to play tug o' war with it...

I only loan books out to careful friends now!

BTW, interesting to note how many book disasters involve water or liquid

[ladymacbeth]

It's been a bad week for books. Fell asleep while reading in the afternoon with book held above head. Book vs forehead and forehead lost. Large red mark for the rest of the day on forehead. Husband laughed at me. Luckily no residual bruising the next day.

[Books do furnish a room]

I lived in a grotty bedsit when at uni and went home for Christmas. I returned to discover that a water pipe had burst above my room and drenched much of it including many of my books. Being an impecunious student I dried them all out and still have some of them today!

[Weave]

When I had a bath, I dropped my book in it far too many times :blush:

[Bettyboop33]

Well I was the victim of a mishap, I lent my twilight book to my sister in law and I was talking baout possibly getting it back from her when she admitted my nephew had gotten at the book, I was pleased to find out she had bought me a new copy and wasnt annoyed at all because it was the movie cover version and I wanted the original cover to complete the set.

[Hayley]

I once went on holiday to Spain and stupidly left my book on a sun lounger, when I came back I assume the glue on the spine must have melted as all the pages started falling out as I picked it up :/