Musing Monday: Lending Books

Today’s Musing Monday asks: “What is your policy on lending books? Do you lend books to anyone or just friends?”

I am a huge fan of lending books to people. Or borrowing books. Sometimes for an extended period of time. (Sheepishly.) And there are a few books I wish I could get in packs of 10 at a time, some kind of frequent-buyer program. Books that I absolutely adore and wind up recommending to people incessantly. This list probably also functions as a field guide to my psyche, in some strange interpretive way.

The main ones are:
- The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin
- The Art of Drowning- Billy Collins
- Ender’s Game and Speaker For the Dead- Orson Scott Card
The Callahan Chronicals- Spider Robinson
Callahan’s Lady- Spider Robinson
Bobos in Paradise- David Brooks
Those are the essentials I will recommend no matter who you are and what we think of each other. Other recommendations and borrowings will be more individually tailored.

I also spend a lot of time recommending The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Less because it has any deep resonance for me- and more because I know a huge number of people who love vampire fiction, and I want to rescue them from the likes of “Twilight” and Anne Rice. Bleah!

Really, I’m okay with lending a book that I’m not going to see again. Maybe it’s on a journey towards someone new, and being read and enjoyed by people I don’t know. I like that. Wish the library took such a zen view to my overdue fines. heh.