Dirty books

I like libraries. The main thing I like about libraries is the fact that you get books from them for free. There is just one problem with books borrowed from a library and it's that, most likely, they have already been borrowed by other people.

When you buy a book from a book shop, you know that it is pristine. Save, perhaps, from someone flicking through it in the shop, no-one else has opened this particular copy. This is not true of a library book and I find any reminder that this is the case causes me a surprising 'Oh!' moment.

Today I was reading 'The Salmon of Doubt', a book of Douglas Adams' writings published after his untimely death. Everything was going fine, I was really enjoying the book until I turned the page to find a hair. A hair! It was a straight hair, which is good, but it was a hair - in my book. 'Oh!'. It didn't matter that I was really enjoying the text of the book, not a bit, I had to put it down and walk away.

The odd 'addition' to a book is inevitable, I myself had a particularly unpleasant experience once with a paperback, a gust of wind and a nosefull of dust that probably rendered a couple of pages unreadable, however, I think all library users should strive, no, strive is not good enough, assure, on pain of heavy fine, that all books are returned free of hair, skin and bodily secretions.