Book ownership

Charles Lamb

A book reads the better, which is our own, and has been so long known to us, that we know the topography of the blots, and dog's ears, and can trace the dirt in it to having read it at tea with buttered muffins.

Charles Lamb

A book reads the better which is our own ... (I don't know why Charles Lamb put that comma in there. It seems unnecessary to me.)

I have long felt this way. I rarely visit the public library these days because I no longer listen to recorded books, and they were just about the only thing I have borrowed from libraries for many years. Once I could afford to buy my own books I mostly stopped borrowing library books. I am a condo librarian and often donate books to the cause, yet I have rarely borrowed a book from this collection.

For many years I received books for review from publishers, and these became my books. I didn't have to give them back, though I eventually gave most of them away.

I dislike borrowing books from friends.

Like Lamb, I much prefer reading my own books. There is no deadline for finishing them, or even for starting them. Usually books sit on my shelves for years waiting their turn. I seem to know when it comes time to read them.

After I have read them — and as Lamb observes, they are often stained with tea and various food particles if I read them at mealtimes — I put the best of them back on my shelves or, nowadays, in a box in my storage unit. I like looking at them and knowing they are there in case I ever need to refer to them or, in some cases, read them a second or third time.

The best books in the world, as far as I am concerned, are those that belong to me.