Musing Mondays

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about borrowed books.
Where do you keep any books borrowed from friends or the library? Do they live with your own collection, or do you keep them separate? Do you monitor them in anyway.
Personally, I try not to borrow books. I have such a scattershot approach to deciding what to read next that it’s likely I will never get around to the borrowed book. Plus, thanks to my job, I can usually get my grubby hands on any book that’s been recommended to me. Also since I am stubborn and don’t like to be told what to do, there’s a better than good chance that I really won’t get around to those borrowed book precisely because I ought to, to return them.

Exception: if I am at someone’s house and start reading a book there, I might then ask to borrow it, and since I’ve already begun it I should finish it quickly. (Example: Mountains Beyond Mountains, borrowed from Mom when I started reading it at her house over Christmas 2008.)

I borrowed a book from a friend 4 years ago: Rising Tide by John M. Barry. I was struggling with The Great Influenza, and my friend said this book was much better. It was still dense and a bit difficult although yes, better than Influenza, but then Hurricane Katrina hit. And the book was a little too close for comfort. I’ve never picked it back up and ought to return it. The other book I know I have that is a borrow is Angela’s Ashes. This book was foisted on me, despite my protestations. I read the first 20 pages when it first came out and got so depressed I wanted to kill myself (figuratively but still.) I told the borrowee that I was very unlikely to ever read it but she insisted. I think I’ve had this book for about 10 years now. She knows I have it, I know it’s hers, and who knows – maybe one day I’ll be in the mood.

Because I have so few borrowed books, I don’t really need to keep them separated. And really, why do I ever need to borrow books? I have over 250 books in my house that I haven't read. Most offers to loan me books I turn down.