March is Reading Month, Tip #4: Loan a Book

Loan a book.

Did you read something fabulous? Loan it to a friend! Books and magazines are a great thing to pass around for kids and grown-ups. Getting and giving recommendations is one way readers figure out what to read next.

One time, a friend (we'll just call her Christy- because that's her name) sent me a terrible book (I am too embarrassed to share the title publicly) that had been a Kelly Ripa Book Club Book, and ingeniously she added her written own "review" ("Awesome." -Christy M.) on the page with press reviews in the book (which were from trashy women's magazines in this case...). After adding my own comment to the page (I remember precisely what I wrote: "I actually felt my IQ dropping with the turn of every page" - Mary R.), I sent it on to a lady (we'll call her Stacey- because that's her name) in upstate New York. Writing our own reviews before passing on the book was fun.

Typically when I loan out a book, I expect it may not come back. Que sera, sera.



Disclaimer:
The woman referred to as "Christy" in this post very generously sends me many fabulous books. I owe her for "The Help" and "The Art of Racing in the Rain" among others. But she also sent me (with a warning post-it that it was terrible) the worst book in the world, for which she still owes me 2 hours of my life. Sending someone a book and saying it is terrible is a confusing challenge. You read it, thinking, "It can't me that bad." Well, it was worse than anyone could have ever imagined.
The woman referred to as "Stacey" in this post almost never does offensive things. Although she did once recommend "She's Come Undone" which freaked me out, she used to make me Snickerdoodles on a regular basis. Heaven knows she could pop a batch in the mail.