Thursday 7 June 2012

Sharing books at work?

I had noticed that bookshelves have been installed in the common room of my workplace. I was wondering why. Now I know, as there was a paper explaining it: it is a sharing book scheme, people bring books from their place they don't read anymore and they place them on the bookshelves. There are a few titles already, different subjects.

I think it is a lovely initiative, but I am hesitant to participate, for a stupid and selfish reason: I don't like to share books much. Most of the books I own, I want to keep them. The very few I will not go back to it, I am still reluctant to tkae them off my bookshelves. What if I want to reread them to check if I was right about them in the first place? And there is a question of pride as well: I can abandon a book I really didn't like, I can give it to charity, but I would not want people from work to know I own it. However, I will make an effort and offer some of my books for the scheme. I guess there are a few titles I can give away for a bit with neither suffering nor shame. I will do it because people don't read enough and this is a great way to get people reading. And I do believe there is not sharing more generous than sharing a book.

5 comments:

Cynthia said...

I'd love to do that, I'm not sentimental about my books: I give them away or sell them when I'm moving.

However I don't think my books would have much success at work and I guess the shelves would be full of Harry Potter and DaVinci's code!

Guillaume said...

Il faudrait que je regarde les titres offerts. C'est peut-être vraiment un foutoir sans nom.

VioletSky said...

We have a 'library' bookshelf in our laundry room which is very popular. I have no idea, really, who drops off what books and don't much care. I have gotten some great reads and taken chances on others that I was glad to be able to return with ease.

Guillaume said...

@VioletSky-Hey, thanks for commenting on my blog again! I survived tedious tasks such as laundering by reading while my clothes were being washed. So having a bookshelf in a laundry is a great idea.

Anonymous said...

I am not sure that I would want to lose books either. I am a bit sentimental about them, people that have given them to me, stories I love, and that I read again. But it is a lovely idea.