Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Books are important.

"For him that steals, or borrows and returns not, a book from its owner, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain crying aloud for mercy, and let there be no surcease to his agony till he sing in dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw at his entrails in token of the Worm that dieth not. And when at last he goes to his final punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him for ever."

~an inscription at the library of the San Pedro monastery in Barcelona.

That about sums it up. The bit about the bookworms is particularly pointed.

20 comments:

geewits said...

Okay! I'll give that book to my daughter to give back to her aunt. Geeez!

Anonymous said...

I don't know who it is, but would that someone please give Tai back her book!
My goodness... it wasn't one that I leant to you, was it? LOL

jmb said...

Yes indeed, give it back. Maybe ask nicely, say someone else wants to borrow it. Or maybe you can't remember who the culprit is?

Jazz said...

Did someone not return your book? Tell me what it is and I'll buy you a copy and send it out to you....

Grant said...

That's way worse than the ten-cent a day fine my library imposes, but I'm glad to see someone taking the matter seriously.

Tai said...

It's more of a general moan for all the books I know I owned but can't find.

I suspect the silverfish have eaten them all.

Mz.Elle said...

Oooh I ADORE that!

I now have a strict rule that my books are not for loan;p

Pol* said...

ALRIGHTY! I guess that means you will be finding the book you borrowed about Henry VIII's wives?

(Did I borrow any from you?)

kimber said...

I love the blasted members image. BANG! I don't think I have any of your books, but if I do, I shall promptly return them!

Big Brother said...

mmm sounds about right, my books are sacred, don't touch. Hope you get yours back.

CrackerLilo said...

If I wasn't so danged literal about curses, I'd inscribe that on the inside of every last one of my books. We have a couple friends who "accidentally" make off with our books and magazines or "forget" to return the books!

Janice Thomson said...

I'm definitely with you on that one - I no longer lend mine out - too many times they never came back and some of them were hard to find in the first place.

the walking man said...

Daaaamn! I will have to say that simply slamming his member between the pages of a large dictionary would be a more benevolent fate for the male-factor.

"Uhmm No thanks I don't want to borrow anything! Tai, I'm cool thanks anyway" he says as he back out of the room of fish fly eaten books.


Peace

mark

Cedar said...

Nice, and I just found 2 books that I took out of the Arlingtion, VA library back in 1988 that I never returned before moving. I don't even want to know what the fine is on those 2 books.

Jo said...

I pretty much agree with that assessment. My books are my most treasured items. I don't lend them out to anyone anymore.

David Amulet said...

Holy crap! That writer was pretty damn serious about his books!

I once used a library slip system for lending out my books after I lost a couple within several months.

Phronk said...

I've gone the paranoid geek route, and have a little piece of paper where I write down all the books, DVDs, and CDs I've lent out, and who to.

A few always manage to disappear anyway though.

limpy99 said...

I will only loan out books that I don't mind not reading again. And I have to admit, I'm not the best at returning books, but I always take real good care of them so please get these worms out of my etrials and accpet my $.15 a day penance.

Hermes said...

OK. But why the image of... is that Heracles fighting the hydra? I can tell you first hand, that dude couldn't even read.

Phil said...

LOL, did someone not return your book? Get the Amazon Kindle and you'll never have that problem. Just don't lend it out.