Why I Do Not Lend Books

Books, I am very fond of books. I do not want to imagine a world without them as I believe it would be a dreary place, lacking grace and imagination.

The public library is a favourite place to visit. The books are priced right, free, as long as you return them on time. The library card is free, how can one go wrong?

I enjoy book sales, where unknown treasures await and second hand book stores are one of the essential businesses any town must have, even more important than a coffee shop; however, the two side-by-side, would be ideal.

I have a personal library, not too big but growing by the week, it seems. The majority of the collection is comprised of books on gardening, food and agriculture. There are some fiction books, and among those are works by Charles Dickens, H.G. Wells, and a Canadian author Charles de Lint.

My wife has her own library. She is a intrigued by the era that includes Henry the VIII and Elizabeth the 1^st.

I do not lend books. Some were hard to find and are out of print, replacing them would be difficult if not impossible, and when found they could be expensive. The books have been purchased from stores and individuals in a number of countries and to me they are priceless.

I will share the knowledge held between their pages. That is one reason I began to write to share what I was learning, and to tell people about the source of that knowledge.

I do not lend books; however, I will give them away. I do not give away simply any book, but, for example, I have two copies of a book written in the 1950s about rose gardening. I do not need two copies so one is going to a person who appreciates roses and knows there is much to learn in some of the older books.

There are also books given away because there are more then enough in my collection on a given subject, organic gardening is one area where I have a umber of books and a few repeat very similar information so why hoard them, they get passed along to others who may benefit from reading them.

Fiction, I do not lend fiction but will give books, I have read and know well, to people I have met who might enjoy reading them. I do not expect anything in return, I want to share the experience the book was, knowing that each of use will react or fell differently from a personal reading and an opportunity to take one’s own sweet time savoring the experience.

Books enrich life, to be able to give someone a book, with no strings attached, also enriches. I do not lend books.