Land of Lending
January 18, 2009

Sharing books is one of the great side benefits of loving books. Most of the time sharing involves talking about a book with a friend or a book club, or gifting someone with a book, or lending a book to a friend. But sharing can come up in unexpected ways too.

One evening last week I was ensconced on the sofa engrossed in the final pages of Panama Fever. Three of my four cats had draped themselves on my body and were sleeping soundly until suddenly as one they jerked their heads up, ears pricked and eyes wide. It was then I heard what had disturbed them—two men were just outside the windows, talking. The cats hesitated only a second before sprinting under the bed. A moment later, an authoritative knock sounded. It turned out to be the police on a neighborhood matter.

While they were interviewing me I noticed their curious glances around my home. Unlike most people, I do not own a television, stereo or related electronics. But I do own enough books to cover every inch of the bookcases, the coffee table, my nightstand, a fair amount of the dining table and kitchen counter (whatever isn’t required for dishwashing, food preparation and a couple of small appliances). Even in several corners of the living room piles of books await more appropriate locations.

One of the bookcases is a floor-to-ceiling one that contains, among other things, a section of oversized fine art photography books. The eyes of the older officer, which had been meandering over the shelves, suddenly stopped about three-quarters of the way up. “You have a book on Croatia?” he asked in a tone of astonishment.

When I took it down and set it on the table, he accepted my encouragement to glance through it. His eyes lit up as he told me he originally came from that country. I was the first person he ever met who knew much of anything, let alone had a book about, his native land. We chatted briefly about its stunning beauty, and then I did something I haven’t done before: I offered to lend a favored (and expensive) book to a stranger.

He didn’t take it that night—they had begun their shift only about an hour before and would be out most of the night—but he does have it now. I know from the way he handled it as I handed it to him the next day that it will be treated with respect and gentleness, and that it will come back to me soon.

I’ve lent books before. Some of the experiences have been good ones. One was terrible. But they have all been between someone I already knew and myself. This is the first time I have risked lending such an expensive, treasured volume to anyone, and it is the first time I have lent any book to a stranger. I’ll let you know what happens.

Upcoming Book Festivals:
The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, which takes place in Elko, Nevada, from January 24-31, is turning twenty-five this year. Which means this is a special celebration of “life in the rural West, featuring the contemporary and traditional arts that arise from lives lived caring for land and livestock.” Among the events are numerous live concerts, theatre performances, dinner theatres, film theatres, Conversations With …, a Silver Jubilee, a Ranch Family Show, and more. There are also special workshops and programs (including youth workshops), educational programs, and special exhibits.

Of Interest:
I realized that last two weeks I have forgotten the weekly book giveaway so this week I am posting three books to make up for those. This week I have Jetpack Dreams: One Man’s Up and Down (But Mostly Down) Search for the Great Invention That Never Was by Mac Montandon, Purr More, Hiss Less: Heavenly Lessons I Learned from My Cat by Allia Zobel Nolan, and Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back by Frank Schaeffer. If you are interested in any of them, send me an email with your name and mailing address. If I get more than one person who wants the same book I’ll put the names into a jar and draw the winner. No one in the same household can win more than two books during the course of this giveaway, which runs through the end of January. 

This Week . . .
Two book blogs are the subject of our attention this week since they share not only a creator-writer but a witty and erudite style not often seen in the blogging world. CW is a Texas bookseller who obviously loves books for themselves. Though his posts are about books he has for sale (or has sold), he shares his personal interactions with them and with their history in Archaeolibris. “Digging up interesting fragments among the leaves of new, used, and out-of-print books,” he says of this blog. And it’s true. I have learned about the original and shocking Pinocchio story, the history behind an original 1770 print of a bookseller being burned at the stake, the connection among a musty old book, a photograph within of a home for Confederate veterans, and a  letter, acquired earlier, from a resident of that home addressed to a bookseller who the veteran believed might be able to help him escape his “prison.” He is not a frequent poster: in 2007, CW posted a total of twenty-one times, in 2008 a total of nineteen. But what he misses in quantity he makes up for in quality.     

Bibliophemera focuses on “ephemera related to books—their owners, sellers, binders, publishers, etc.” As a collector of bookmarks, I am a natural fan of this blog. Even if you are not a ephemera lover yourself you likely find yourself enthralled with it. His most recent post (as of this writing) is about bookmobiles, probably a strong childhood memory for most readers. In his research for this particular post, he talks about the history of bookmobiles, his personal experiences (“I can still remember the excitement I felt as a kid when the bookmobile came to our neighborhood. Climbing up into the truck into a world of books, I was like a kid in a candy store. Or I guess a bookstore.”) and the ephemera of bookmobiles. Other posts focus on a bookseller’s trade cards, a bookplate, an article about the Barcelona Book Fair that occurred in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, and a video clip on safely separating a bookplate from its book.  What makes this blog so interesting, aside from the writing, is the range of biblophemera items and their history.

Until next week, read well, read often and read on!

Lauren