I’m having a moral dilemma.I am not willing to buy all of the books I want to read.
And sometimes these are too new to borrow from the Library.
So, since I spend so much time in the bookstore anyway, I have at times read entire books in there, without purchasing them.
It’s because of people like me that one day we will have books behind glass, in stores.
Or…. wrapped in cellophane!
Or… [horrors!] → Book vending machines!
My current dilemma is as follows.
See, I often receive review-books direct from the publisher.
In exchange for reviewing them, I get the books for free.
In my most recent shipment I was anticipating a certain book in the package.
However, while there were some amazingly lovely books in there, the anticipated one was absent!
In the meantime, I had bought a new copy of the thing and had sent it in the mail to my Reading Partner.
Now she will receive her copy, and [chances are] I will not have received mine!
However, I have no intention of buying a second copy.
Despite the rumors, I am NOT rich, as are my esteemed readers of Bookpuddle here.
No.
I am a Bookpauper!
And the book is too new to be retrieving it from a Library. I would be on a waiting list ten miles long!
So.
Enter my dilemma.©
Is it wrong for me to make successive trips to the bookstore [I am writing this very blog while sitting at the bookstore] and in periodic installments, read the entire book here, without purchasing a second copy for myself?
What would Jesus do?
And another thing.
Is there an actual word for this proposed action?
Like… is is stealing? Isn’t that a bit harsh?
Pilfering? Poaching? Purloining?
See, “purloining” still implies that the item will be kept by the… purloiner. And I have no intention of stealing [per se] or purloining, as it were.
Neither am I “borrowing”, technically.
Pirating? But, doesn’t “pirating” involve copying? Intentions of resale?
What is it? Is it “filching”? “Looting”? “Robbery”?
How does it differ from say, eating a head of lettuce while you are still in the supermarket?
Or… taking a new car for a test-drive to go GET your groceries?
Really now! What is the word for this clandestine activity of mine?
Must I invent one, seeing as I [currently] have every intention of doing the thing?
How about “Borroining”? As in, a cross between borrowing and outright purloinitry?
“Infilchating”?
“Piration”?
“Rob-reading”?
“Templooting”?
“Shopreading”?
“Page-pilfing"?
Any ideas? Any moral instruction for me?
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6 comments:
It's temporary book-napping, Cip.
As long as you do not leave the premises with the napped book, you are free to do so. You may even earn a point towards your next book-nap if you write about your reading experience here.
Publishers love that sort of free publicity (and it's cheaper for them, not having to outright gift you a copy, which might be one to do not even covet or love after reading, only allowing you temporary custody of one of their precious books).
So, be absolved of any guilt feelings.
Says me. :-)
My thoughts and my finger are not connected somehow. *blush*
Maybe I should try to get ahold of a grammar adjuster.
I actually tried to do that once. One of the books on the banned and challenged list that my library system didn't carry and I didn't want to own. It was crap, really. It didn't work, although I tried to make a go of it by jotting down my page before I left. I managed a few chapters before declaring the experiment a bust.
I have picked up some smaller books with the intention of grazing them to see if I would want to purchase for myself or for gifts and then wind up reading the whole thing and deciding against purchasing. Although, I've also purchased some after because I felt guilty for reading the whole thing. It kind of felt like stealing. It's a scorpio thing. We get kind of hypervigilant about justice and fairness.
You can always buy the book, then pass it on to other reader friends, or put it up on a swap site like Bookmooch when you are through.
Do you have the email address of the publisher rep who sent you the books? You could always tactfully inquire about the book you want. I don't think you need to feel bad about reading the whole book at the bookstore. You are, afterall, still spending money there since they are making a fortune off of the coffee you buy :)
Thank you for the good ideas, the gracious comments.
And the te absolvos!
-- Cip
I love that you have confidence enough to actually do this! I would be so afraid some crazy bookstore manager would come running up to me, wagging his finger, insisting that I must buy before I read, as do grocery store managers about magazines. Then again, I'm afraid of a lot of things and I need to get over it. You frequent the bookstore, you buy coffee there (I think), you do make purchases. Reading a book there without paying for it won't hurt anyone in the long run! Go for it!
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