In my enthusiasm, I am quite flexible in lending out books. Sharing writings that I have enjoyed. The good thing about this is that this may have contributed positively to the book industry. No. I do not dare implying that my contribution can be noticed on a global scale. But still…
The problem obviously is motivating the ‘receiver’ in giving back the book. Even after some time. Just to avoid awkward phone calls: “Really, yes I fully understand you moved house 3 times and the book may be lost in one of the boxes that remained unopened after the second move, but I really appreciate if you check for me….” Normally, I avoid such phone calls and simply buy a new copy. It would be interested to keep statistics of books you bought again. Maybe an untapped source for Amazon.com?
One of my attempts to motivate ‘book return’ resulted in this cartoon below. And it was effective. I started handing out the cartoon systematically, with almost every book that left my shelves. There were also a few books where I fell back in the old habit of simply trusting. Those with cartoon returned before I was looking for them. The others? Still hoping.
