Saturday, July 23, 2011

When Friends loan you books

I have a quick question before I go to bed....
when a friend loans you a book, and when I say this, I mean gives you a book that she wants you to read--you didn't ask to borrow, but she liked it and wants you to read it right away--- what do you do?

This seems like a silly question, because I love to read and I will 'eventually' read all my books.  (I have to live to be 120 and buy no more books ever, but...)

I have 2-3 book clubs and I have to read those, and then my own TBR pile...

....if you follow me on  Goodreads.  I mean if you are my friend on Goodreads, you know I've been putting all my books on there, and so far I have 92 in the 'to be read'  section.  And I haven't even made it upstairs to the 'library' yet.

I have a list in my mind of what I want to read next.  And next.  And next.   But last week a good friend gave me 2 books and a few days later asked me if I had read them yet.  Um....I wasn't planning on reading them real soon.   I'm sure I'd like them, but, I just have others I wanted to and had planned on reading in the next few weeks.

I told you it was a silly question, but how do you handle that? Does it annoy you?   Do you drop what you had planned on and read what was given to you?  Or do you just put them in your pile, at the bottom and say you haven't been able to get to them yet?

It's important stuff like this that runs thru my mind as I lay in bed trying to get to sleep.
Tomorrow, I'm going to post about my homemade hamburger buns.
The  Handyman loved my buns.... he told me so with much enthusiasm.

Night.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't have any friends that give me books to read so I can't help you there, lol. But I can't wait to see your buns!

bermudaonion said...

I have a stack of books from a friend and my sister that I've had far too long. They never ask me about them. I did ask the friend if she wants hers back just the other day.

Melynda@Scratch Made Food! said...

I agree about the buns, can't wait to see them. The part about the book is the "right now" part. I think it best to ask in a friendly way, did you need this to loan to someone else?, if so please lend to them first, I won't mind and when I read it, I can enjoy taking my own time. But you know that is just me, I have to have a desire to read the book I am reading, I don't do well with on demand reading. (hope you sleep better tonight).

Linda said...

When someone loans me a book I ask them when they need them back. If I feel the timeline is too short for me, I tell them I couldn't read them that fast and thank them for offering me the book. I hate feeling pressured to read anything before I want to read it.

sadie said...

I usually just read it right away. I'm a quick reader and I know that when I let people borrow my books I want them back soon (if it's not family) so I assume other people have weird anxieties about being separated from their books and so I want to get them back ASAP.

Plus I'm always eager to talk about a book with someone. So if they love it and I read it then we can talk about it haha.

I also read fast so it really doesn't put me off my regularly scheduled reading program.

So now I want to know what books were you given?

Susan Lindquist said...

I'm usually brutally honest with folks. If it's an author that I'm not particularly interested in, I'll be up front... thanks, but no, thanks. If it's a book that I'm interested in, I, too, ask when the person needs the book back and then gauge whether I can get through or to the book before that point in time. If the person is really adamant about me reading it, I'll try it and then ask them to have a discussion about the book ... now, get some sleep and bring on the buns!

Lesa @Edesia's Notebook said...

I love to read too, but I HATE it when friends give me books to read. I put serious time and consideration in determining which book to read next, so I don't appreciate feeling pressured to read some book I'm not really interested in. That happened to me in grad school; that provided a good excuse. I kept it for a few weeks and then gave it back saying that I had too much homework to be reading fiction novels. Since then, I've done my best to decline taking the book in the first place, usually by saying, "Thank you for the offer, but I've got several other books that I've been dying to read, so I'll let you know when I am ready to read this one."

I love sites like Goodreads because that way friends can recommend a book to you without physically giving it to you. And since most people have access to a library, there's really no need to get the actual book from them; you can just borrow it on your own time.

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