When I Loaned This Book I Deemed It as Lost
by Nick Senger (with apologies to Shakespeare)
To lend or not to lend, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of a book lost forever,
Or to hoard books against a sea of troubles,
And by keeping them hide them? To read: to lend;
No more. And by hoarding to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That the librarian is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To read, to lend;
To lend, perchance to lose. Ay, there’s the rub.
For in that loss of books what dreams may come.
(from A Passion for Books: A Book Lover’s Treasury)
by Christopher Morley
I give hearty and humble thanks for the safe return of this book, which having endured the peril’s of my friend’s bookcase and the bookcases of my friend’s friends, now returns to me in reasonably good condition. I give hearty and humble thanks that my friend did not see fit to give this book to his infant for a plaything, nor use it as an ashtray for his burning cigar, nor as a teething-ring for his mastiff. When I loaned this book I deemed it as lost; I was resigned to the business of the long parting. But now that my book has come back to me, I rejoice and am exceedingly glad! Bring hither the fatted morocco and let us rebind the volume and set it on the shelf of honor, for this my book was lent and is returned again. Presently, therefore, I may return some of the books I myself have borrowed.
