Never lend a girl to a book

I'm the kind of person who likes keeping his books in good condition.

In my senior college days, I lent a book to a friend of mine, who happened to be a girl. That book was In His Steps by Charles Monroe Sheldon. It was returned to me in a somewhat different condition than the one in which it was lent. Have you ever got a book or one of its pages wet? And waited for it to dry? And seen the difference? The pages, though still bound together, appear somewhat crumpled in a rippled sort of way. They don't quite place evenly within the books like they used to. Also, they're all discoloured. What this tends to do is ruin the book and the reading experience.

In my first year of work I, having not yet learnt my lesson, foolishly lent another book to a female colleague - A Case of Need by Michael Crichton. This too came back to me with a rainy-day story attached, greatly disturbing me. And to make it worse, a small piece of the front cover was actually torn off. The Horror!

These two incidents left an indelible mark on me. I resolved from that day on to never again lend a book to a girl. If you want a book, ladies, buy it off me.

Never lend a girl to a book