SS// Bookmooch & Book Lies

G'morn Sunday Saloners! This past week I found myself entranced by House of Sand & Fog (review coming soon!) and slowly psyching myself in saying goodbye to my summer months. That's right, this up and coming week is my last week of leisure. Soon I will once again be a scatter-brained teacher, grading papers, organizing fundraisers, putting on dances, talent shows, emptying recycle bins, and putting together the yearbook. Oh and of course "teaching" will be sprinkled through out for good measure. I'm a bit fearful over the initial adjustment. My quarters tend to be separated by various pressing deadlines (some more overwhelming than others). Since last year was the first year that I maintained a list of books read during each month, it will be interesting to see if certain months truly are "bad" for me, reading wise.

And with that in mind, I've been using this past week to go through my bookshelves and re-organize. I asked everyone last week: Bookswap vs. Bookmooch. And it seemed pretty unanimous that Bookmooch was the most favored. I grabbed a handful of books, created my log-in, and viola, I entered the world of mooching. Oh. My. Seriously. I'm addicted. And you know, it's not that I'm so much addicted with finding books (although that's definitely neat!), but what really gets me giddy is getting rid of my books. I love my books, mind you. But the same giddiness that I get when I walk into a book sale, or stumble across a Book Warehouse, I get knowing that I can give a book to someone who wants it. It's like Christmas. There's been so many books on my shelf that have just been sitting there - and I mean years people. I started asking myself, "Am I really going to read this?" as I listed them on my inventory. (I have the two little demons sitting on each side of my shoulder - and yes they are both demons *snicker* - one is guilting me with 'you can get rid of that book, you picked it up for a reason' and the other one is guilting me with 'are you kidding me? you haven't even looked at it in months. let it go. release it. there are soooo many books out there' LOL. I never said that I was entirely sane when i came to reading.) Suffice to say, I've given five of my neglected books to good homes.

Which sends me on to another tangent...do you ever LIE about books? You know, like, pretend that you have actually read them when you haven't? And I don't really mean that lie that you might have told in college while standing around a group of other students and they're talking about something and so you sorta nod your head in agreement in that way that leads them to believe that you know what they are talking about. I don't mean that kind of lie. Or even, I guess, I don't even mean lying in the sense that you're terribly embarrassed because someone says, "really, I mean, who hasn't read _x_y_z" I get that kind of lie under pressure (although in my years well into adulthood I'm pass the pretentious stage of life and will gladly admit my ignorance). 

No. I mean the lies that you tell friends (or acquaintances, or co-workers, or neighbors...) when they've loaned you a book that they were super excited about and you either (a) have no interest in reading it but somehow it got pushed into your hands, or (b) maybe had intentions to read it, but you've now had it on your shelves for-EVER and they've asked you A MILLION times if you've gotten around to reading it yet.

So. Do you? Do you go on Amazon? Do you read a couple of reviews? Do you skim the book? Read a passage or two? Convince yourself of some memory? Tell them that you did really enjoy it? But leave your comment general?

I ask, because there are eight books on my shelf given to me by others. Others that feel very strongly that I'm going to enjoy these books. Books that, I suppose, would interest me if I didn't already have a daunting stack of books waiting to be read. Luckily, none of the owners of said books have asked me about them, so I haven't found myself in "to lie or not to lie" position. But it has crossed my mind. Should I have a back up plan? I back up lie?

And while I'm in confession, I admit, I have been devious about some books borrowed. This past year a colleague handed over 3 books for me to read while I loaned her 2. A month or two passed and she returned my 2 in my mailbox (in the teacher's mailroom) with a pleasant note thanking me and a couple of comments about the two books - specific, but not too specific (hmmm...did she lie?) I kept looking at the books she loaned my way but they were so THE OPPOSITE of what I read and would ever be interested in (political crime thrillers set in DC). I couldn't do it. I couldn't even open up the books (although I did read the backs!) But, instead of owning up to this - I felt such guilt because she 'read' mine - that after about six months I slipped them in her mailbox with a post-it note thanking her. And so yeah, I made sure that I did it right before we went on holiday in the hopes that the two weeks away from work would put enough distance between us that it wouldn't occur to her to come find me in my classroom and ask what I thought. It seemed to work. It was almost a month later before I saw her and the books were long forgotten. *whew* Confession over.

No spill it. Have you lied? What are your thoughts? Or are you a better (wo)man than me and just owns up to your lack of interest/time/insert reason for not reading book.