I like reading books. I can go through five or six a day. I need a lot of them to keep me entertained since I don't generally read them again after I finish them. I just gotta keep buying more!
I live in the Philippines. Its a beautiful country whose modern era was birthed by European socialist thought and raised to maturity under a half-century of American Socialist tutelage (AKA Progressivism and New Deal politics for those of you who care about history). I totally reject these incarnations of mob rule, so people here consider me weird. "The government is good for you! Din'tcha know?!"
What I really hate about where I live is people's their attitude towards books. We have a lot of book shops all over the country. We have national chains, international ones, and even a huge market on second-hand and antique books. Its a big industry and book shops around the country are packed. So what's the problem?
Well, first, they take one look at my library and the first thing out of their mouths is, "Wow! Did you read all those books?" And half the time they don't believe me when I tell them I do. Sad, but true point: Some people here buy books for show. They put them up on the shelves and never read them.
Second, of the actual book readers, there is this mentality that seems to permeate with them, that my books are, by default, communal property. They will beg to borrow, and then, on the few occasions when I do, they promptly go out and re-lend it to their friends. "It's okay, (s)he's a good friend of mine." Yeah, but its my property and you have no right to lend it out. By the time my books come back to me, I need to buy new ones.
Heck, when I first signed up with shelfari, a bunch of my countrymen immedietely demanded for me to lend them this or that title. Mind you, these are not people I grew up with or even people I know. Just the usual bunch you see on social sites like this. I don't know them from Adam, but they expect that, just because I hold the same passport they do, my books are up for grabs. And they get at mad at me for being "selfish" and "antisocial" when I don't comply. Unbelievable.
What's that Charles Lamb, an 18th century English essayist, was once quoted as saying?
"Borrowers of books—those mutilators of collections, spoilers of the symmetry of shelves, and creators of odd volumes."
Finally, for most of the book readers and actual bibliophiles here, they just don't know how to handle books carefully. For those who really don't (and those who just think they do), here is a detailed set of instructions from "Modern Bookbinding" on HOW TO OPEN A (Hardbound) BOOK. (Additions in parenthesis mine.)
1. Hold the book with its (SPINE DOWN) on a smooth or covered table;
2. Let the front board down, then the other, holding the leaves in one hand.
3. Open a few leaves at the back, then a few at the front, and so on.
4. Alternately open back and front (LEAVES), gently pressing open the sections till you reach the center of the volume.
5. Do this two or three times and you will obtain the best results.
6. Open the volume violently or carelessly in any one place and you will likely break the (LINING, GUTTER, FLYLEAF & ENDSHEETS).
7. Never force the (SPINE) of the book.
An anecdote from: http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg/abbey/an/an06/an06-2/an06-216.html
"A connoisseur many years ago, an excellent customer of mine, who thought he knew perfectly how to handle books, came into my office when I had an expensive binding just brought from the bindery ready to be sent home; he, before my dyes, took hold of the volume and tightly holding the leaves in each hand, instead of allowing them free play, violently opened it in the center and exclaimed: 'How beautifully your bindings open!' I almost fainted. He had broken the back of the volume and it had to be rebound."
MORE RESOURCES:
1. Care and Handling of Books, URL: http://www.library.northwestern.edu/preservation/chlm/
2. 25 Reminders for Common-Sense Book Care, URL: http://ahc.uwyo.edu/faqs/documents/BookCare.pdf [Requires Adobe PDF]
3. How to care for your books, URL: http://www.essortment.com/all/bookscaringfor_rngs.htm
If you guys know any better tips on how to handle books, please contact me.
Now, for those of you in the shelfari community. Please don't bother requesting friendship if all you want is to run up your numbers. I currently have a bunch of "friends" on my list and despite a number of them saying how great it will be to discuss books, NONE OF THEM DO.
If you're all like that, then I don't need more "friends". I thought this site was to meet up with people and discuss books? What do I get? A community of hermits. Even more with my groups. What's the point of of joining a social site and not socializing? I feel gyped.
So, in conclusion: if you no books in common with me, or aren't interested in any topics that I'm into, or don't interact with others, or can't even bother with the simple cou
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