Neither a borrower nor a lender be!
Polonius was dead right when he said:
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
And I’m sure he was talking about books when he said that! I have come to the conclusion that there are only a few people in this world you can lend anything to; the rest will borrow whatever takes their fancy, promise faithfully to return it as soon as possible and that is the last you’ll ever see of it.
I’ve taken to writing my name in all my books in the hopes that they will find their way back to their rightful owner eventually but it goes against the grain. A book that is written on, marked, underlined, or otherwise defaced is spoilt for me. It’s almost worse that the top corner of a page being folded over to mark your place. That, in my lexicon of sins, is mortal, not easily forgiven.
One dear friend asked if I’d like to look through some books she was giving to Oxfam only to discover two of my own in the pile. She didn’t seem at all worried at this ghastly discovery, blithely shrugging her shoulders, smiling warmly at me, glad I’d found something worth keeping.
Another, who is no longer on my Christmas card list, begged to borrow a biography of my paternal grandfather (politician, trade unionist, musician, failed priest, keeper of bees), a treasured possession even if I had failed to plough through all of the 345 densely packed pages. Month after month I waited for it to come back. A year passed and nearly two when she finally handed it to me saying, “keep it as long as you like”. What??? I looked inside where I had written my name, and there, under the black line through my nom de guerre, was HER name. It took some time for me to calm down, it took some time for me to tell her – politely – that in fact it was MY book, and that I had lent it to her. Grrrrrr!
Polonius has been described variously as, ”a busy-body, officious, garrulous and impertinent” but in the matter of borrowing and lending, he and I are as one.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
And I’m sure he was talking about books when he said that! I have come to the conclusion that there are only a few people in this world you can lend anything to; the rest will borrow whatever takes their fancy, promise faithfully to return it as soon as possible and that is the last you’ll ever see of it.
I’ve taken to writing my name in all my books in the hopes that they will find their way back to their rightful owner eventually but it goes against the grain. A book that is written on, marked, underlined, or otherwise defaced is spoilt for me. It’s almost worse that the top corner of a page being folded over to mark your place. That, in my lexicon of sins, is mortal, not easily forgiven.
One dear friend asked if I’d like to look through some books she was giving to Oxfam only to discover two of my own in the pile. She didn’t seem at all worried at this ghastly discovery, blithely shrugging her shoulders, smiling warmly at me, glad I’d found something worth keeping.
Another, who is no longer on my Christmas card list, begged to borrow a biography of my paternal grandfather (politician, trade unionist, musician, failed priest, keeper of bees), a treasured possession even if I had failed to plough through all of the 345 densely packed pages. Month after month I waited for it to come back. A year passed and nearly two when she finally handed it to me saying, “keep it as long as you like”. What??? I looked inside where I had written my name, and there, under the black line through my nom de guerre, was HER name. It took some time for me to calm down, it took some time for me to tell her – politely – that in fact it was MY book, and that I had lent it to her. Grrrrrr!Polonius has been described variously as, ”a busy-body, officious, garrulous and impertinent” but in the matter of borrowing and lending, he and I are as one.
Labels: borrowing books, lending book, Polonius
