Sunday, October 18, 2009

Sunday Salon: Lose a book


Am I the only one? Have you ever lost a book, knowing full well that you've never taken it out of your house, searching the stacks and all of the logical areas it could be and then even searching the illogical areas? You'd think I would never have this happen since I am meticulous about alphabetizing my books by author, seperating them by physical type. So finding a book at my house should be easy, peasy, lemon squeezy. And yet it's not. There are, of course, the books that I swear have been awol since one of our moves. And their absence in my stacks makes me angry. But I don't think I misplaced them myself. The misplaced by self books make me completely and totally crazy. They can inspire multiple hunts and second guessing of my alphabetical skills as I scan the shelves around where said book should be with rising levels of frustration and dread. If not here, where?

This is a whole different level of losing a book than that of setting one down, walking off, and then having to do circuits through my house trying to remember which table or counter or stack I balanced the book on top of. I do this type of losing as well, of course. But how do books seemingly wander off if they have been properly filed? I suspect librarians feel this sort of pain a lot. But then they have to let the public monkey around with their collections and I don't. I'm the only one to blame if a book has gone walkabout. And I can't get the titles of the books I can no longer locate out of my head. The fact of their disappearances pops into my head at random times and I sometimes come up with one more place to look or am driven to look in exactly the same places I have looked before. Maybe I filed it under the author's first name by accident. Maybe I transposed two letters of the author's last name, moving it to another shelf alphabetically. Maybe my copy is actually a hardback even though I am pretty certain it's a trade paperback.

And I usually find the book eventually. Oftentimes in the exact place I had looked countless times before. How on earth does that even happen? It almost makes me believe that books act like the toys in Toy Story, coming to life and galivanting around to visit friends and having their own, unscripted adventures. Just how fun would that be? Don Quixote could tilt at some interesting stuff in my house. No windmills, but I'm sure he could find other things to try and conquer. Or maybe he's found a new girlfriend in one of the chick lit books and they sneak off to canoodle when my back is turned. One can only imagine the possibilities given the odd mixture of volumes on my shelves.

Yes, I am just a tad obsessive compulsive about my books. But I can't be the only one can I? Oh, and the latest book that disappeared for months just surfaced this past week, balanced precariously on the top of a stack right next to my desk. I should probably read it soon before it wanders off again.

14 comments:

  1. I really hate to lose library books. I usually just go ahead and pay for them, but I always end up finding them and getting my money back.

    Kids always lose library books and it is so tramatic to lose your library book when you are six years old. There are tears. And wailing, at times.

    I remind them to keep looking and give them an old paperback to tide them over. They always find their books. Look in unusual places, I tell them. One library book was found in the refrigerator.

    Did you try there?

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  2. Oh my, yes! Yes, I have. Too many times to count. LOL It's really embarrassing, especially when it's hiding in plain sight. I've taken to have my husband look if I've tried and tried and still can't find it. Sometimes getting new eyes on the problem works. Sometimes even he misses the book.

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  3. I feel this, as I've misplaced two library books. I lost them about as soon as we brought them home, and they had stayed stubbornly hidden.

    I don't organize unread books, so I know I'm in trouble when I want to jump something particular to the top of the stack.

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  4. I feel this, as I've misplaced two library books. I lost them about as soon as we brought them home, and they had stayed stubbornly hidden.

    I don't organize unread books, so I know I'm in trouble when I want to jump something particular to the top of the stack.

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  5. I feel this, as I've misplaced two library books. I lost them about as soon as we brought them home, and they had stayed stubbornly hidden.

    I don't organize unread books, so I know I'm in trouble when I want to jump something particular to the top of the stack.

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  6. I feel ya on this one!!!! One of my most annoying losses is when I ordered a Jill Mansell book from the UK, read it, and promptly lost it. I believe that I lost it in one of my moves, when I was far less organized (garbage bags for packing, anyone?) Now I'm far more careful, and I only tend to lose books when my kids decide to "play" in mommy's bookshelf!

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  7. Oh yes! Sometimes I think there are holes in our dimension that things just slip through. Then they slip back when we are least expecting it!

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  8. This is hilarious! I do this all the time, and my family mocks me good-naturedly but severely about it. How does this happen? Do we really have that many books? Thanks for sharing so that the rest of us may feel a little better about the same. Happy reading!

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  9. The good news is that the books I've managed to lose haven't been library books. They were all mine. The latest was one I haven't read yet though so I was pleased when it magically reappeared.

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  10. I lose books all the time! It's terrible! I put them down and then have no idea where. Sometimes it takes me a while to find them!

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  11. I don't lose books (or anything else, really. Except this ONE file at work.) But I have a problem with forgetting what I've loaned to other people. Fortunately, I loan only when I don't expect to get them back.

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  12. Back in 1996, I was reading How to Make an American Quilt. I probably only had 50 pages left, and I put it down, open, on the floor next to my bed (no bedside table then), and the following night when I went to bed it was gone. I lived alone. I hunted for it for weeks and weeks and finally had to replace it (luckily it was mass market so I wasn't out too much $$) so I was able to finish it. I figured it would turn up when I moved, but it never has. I think The Borrowers took it.

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  13. I do this almost every day, trying to move the book I'm reading from my bedside table to my car to my living room at different times of day. The worst thing is when I go into a room looking for it and forget why I went into the room...

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  14. I vote it's your kids - they are probably playing with your mind :-)

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