A year or two or three ago, I wrote a post titled On Borrowing Books: A Harrowing Tale of Betrayal, where I told a story about some books, she-who-must-not-be-named, and the complete and utter devastating betrayal that she dealt me. I highly recommend you go read it if you haven’t already, especially if you intend on reading this post. Context is important.
Though if you really don’t want to, a short summary is that this… person… borrowed six of my books about a decade ago, gave back three in awful condition and claimed that I had never even lent her the remaining three, despite knowing the plot content of them. Highly suspect, no? Seriously go read the post, I get very uh… involved in the story.
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So for some reason, these past ten years I never repurchased the three books that had been stolen from me. Was it ego? Was I holding out some hope that even though I likely wouldn’t know her to recognize her now, that one day she’d appear at my door with the books she’d taken? I don’t know. The thought of re-getting these books has been on the back burner of my mind every time I’d go through my book collection for the past ten years. Ten years this is been bugging me, that I never got these books back.
And for ten years I’ve been telling myself ‘I should get these again’, because hey, I now had 9 out of 12 volumes of a series, and without the remaining three, I’d never be able to reread it to completion. So guess who hasn’t read Death Note in almost ten years. Time’s up, it’s me.
But last week, I bit the bullet. I found the books, used, online, and purchased them. I think I spent thirteen dollars total for all three. And they arrived today:
I’m not sure what actually convinced me to buy them. It wasn’t that I was really in the mood to read Death Note (but now I likely will soon just because I can). Maybe it was the fact that it has been literally a decade and my mind was like ‘oh it’s been long enough’. No clue.
Anyway, you should all read Death Note, it’s really neat.
Have you ever lost books or had them borrowed or not returned? Did you re-buy them, or did you turn it into a generational feud like I did?
Embuhleeliest 
It was a feud of Klingon proportions. My family and their family will be at war like the Hatfields and McCoys over a Calvin and Hobbes book. Their family will lose their honor for generations to come.
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Ugh it was so awful. Did you read the original post? I didn’t know how to even mentally cope with the situation.
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Yeah I read the original post. It’s so messed up she did that, regardless of her motives. I would have been so angry to the point of possibly yelling at her, no matter how pointless it would have been.
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It seems like you’ve come to terms with not getting them back from her so you bought them. I’d do the same. I’ve never had that happen to me but that’s because I hardly lend books to folks who don’t live in my house and even then I’ve very selective about it.
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Aye, matey – this horribleness happened to me back when I was a young lass. Me ma decided, without asking me, to “lend” several books and some video games to a family friend with younger children. One of those books was a favourite of mine. I had found it in a used book store in hardcover and kept readin’ it over and over. Of course when me ma was talking to the other ma, I was horrified but of course didn’t want to be rude so said nothing. Once we left, I beseechingly asked why she did that. Her response was that sharing was good for me and it wasn’t a big deal. She tried to assure me that I would get them back soon. I just knew in me heart that I would never see me books or games again. And I didn’t. All these years later I still want that favourite book back. This despite having an e-book of it now. It be not the same. Now I only lend out books that can go missing. The exception being me best friend because we have a good exchange system that has been in place for two decades. So I feel ya.
x The Captain
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Ugh sorry to hear that. Learning sharing as a child is nice, but so is learning that saying ‘no’ is ok. Glad to hear you got another form of the book at least
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