Top Ten Tuesday #13 - Issues With Book Borrowers

Top Ten Tuesday is a Meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish where I will be picking from their top tens and attempting to reveal what my thinking is behind these choices.

My sister borrowed a book the other day. Now, she knows what I like and don't like, but what I was worried about was that her boyfriend might not. I'm not saying he isn't a reader and doesn't understand; he does read, but he may not share my passion for beautiful-looking books. The book in question was Half Bad by Sally Green, and the cover is great. There is no way in hell I'd let anyone injure it. Anyway, despite me fretting he might sit on it or something, it came back to be unscathed. Some of my other books, however, have not been so lucky in the hand of other borrowers. So here's my Top Ten Issues with Book Borrowers:

1. Dog-Eared pages
So some people dog-ear their pages out of habit, I get it. It's easy and good for when you don't have a bookmark. However, it is my book, and I have a thing about keeping my books as pristine as possible, this includes creased up pages!

2. Creased spines
Maybe it's just me, but I absolutely can't stand leaving a book open upside-down to keep a page. Again, bookmarks people! I caught my mum doing this with one of my favourite authors and I nearly had a fit. That cover is now permanently creased and therefore ruined forever (OK, not quite ruined, it's still readable, but the pages might fall out at any time).

3. Their cat/ kid/ gross boyfriend gets their hands on it.
I may trust my friend with the book (having given them very strict guidelines) but what if someone else picks it up? What if their child picks it up with peanut butter all over their fingers, or their cat wants to use it as a litter tray, or their husband discards it flippantly into a corner and a page creases? It's not even worth thinking about.

4. Crumbs.
I don't like finding random things inside my books. This involves crumbs, blobs of ketchup, coffee stains and small insects.

5. They're too slow.
What if I miss the book and must read it again immediately. My patience is fairly good, but some people take a very long time to read a book.

6. They never give it back to me.
I only give books to people I can trust now (and pester). Not that I've ever had one stolen, I just didn't want to risk it. In fact, the only people I really give books to now are my family really, and they're stuck with me and my whiny ways.

7. They don't like it.
I worry too much, it's true. But sometimes if I've seriously loved the book and have been hounding someone to read it, I feel guilty if they then don't like it as much as I did. I feel bad whenever I tell someone a book is good and they read it only to disagree. It makes me worry about my capacity as a reviewer and a writer.

8. They let someone else read it while they're borrowing and don't ask me first.
They would probably never do this, but if my precious book is lost forever to me due to their trust, I would probably vow never to give them a book again.

9. They don't finish the book.
My worst nightmare. I tend to give people books that I have already read because I want to discuss them at great length afterwards. The only things is, if they never finish the book, A; they didn't like it and B; how can they talk about it if they don't know how it ends?!

No number 10 today, but to be honest, I feel like nine is more than enough worries about what other people may do to my precious books. I think I have a very serious problem.

Kyra_x