Weekend Reads #33: Bookish Quirks

Weekend Reads is a weekly discussion on a variety of topics. At the end of the post, I’ll include what I plan to read on the weekend.

This weekend’s question:

Do you loan your books to others?

This is a popular question that often pops up in book tags but though I’m sure I touched on this topic once or twice in other posts, I wanted to discuss it again because it was on my mind and I couldn’t think of another discussion topic.

Do I like to loan out my books? No. I don’t. If someone asks to borrow one of my books, I’ll try all tricks to deter them from leaving my presence with it. That’s harsh but I don’t trust others with my books anymore. I wasn’t always this way. In the past, I didn’t mind loaning my books to others and would sometimes force one my books on someone who I know would enjoy reading it. But the more books I buy with my own money and the more I realize that not everyone takes good care of books or are considerate enough to return them in the condition given, the more I’ve stopped loaning them out. The exception is those who I live with, the people in my house, the people who I can easily track down and who can quickly return my book once they’re done with it instead of keeping it forever.

But I sometimes compromise. No, I still don’t lend my books but I’m more than willing to point a person to the nearest library or bookshop. That’s a compromise. Other times, if it’s a book I don’t mind parting with, I’ll give the book to the person who asks to borrow it; or, if I know someone would like a particular book I own and I don’t mind parting with it, I’ll give it to them and tell them to read it.

Though some relatives and friends have come to accept this weird bookish quirk, there are others who think that I am being mean or take a deep offense to my refusal to lend a book. This bothers me. I’m not trying to be mean. It’s just that certain things I own are off limits and those things are my books. I simply don’t understand why someone would insist on asking to borrow them if they are already aware of my unwillingness to loan them.

But what are your views on this? Please share below.

What I’m reading this weekend:

I should probably head this section with “What I’m going to read this week” instead since I hardly read on the weekends anymore.

This weekend I completed Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit. I completed it on Friday, actually, shortly after arriving home from work. It’s a nice story and well written too but, that ending. I think it’s the first that I’ve found it hard to move past the ending of a book. I didn’t want it to end the way it did and I kept rereading the last chapters in a futile way of seeing it end differently. I was so caught up in the characters. I just thought… I’ll probably reread those last chapters again tonight.

This weekend or this coming week, I plan to start Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I bought it a while ago and I can’t wait to pick up where I left off. I’m just itching to start reading it.

What are you reading this weekend? Please share below.