book rescue

A Better World Books day on friday, happy dance.

In this parcel is a lovely second hand Everyman edition of the The Complete Poems of John Donne. It was printed in 1991, so not very old, but it looks like its had a life. This one was printed and bound in Germany.

It's an ex-library book; I love getting these because I think of all the people who have read it before me, or sometimes , like the Tibetan Medicine books I acquire, I just know that no-one has read it at all before me.

This one I am not so sure, there are a few pencil marks next to some of the poems, so I am guessing a student borrowed this for their semester on Donne, or English Poets.

What makes me smile is that it's from The Public Library of Nashvile and Davidson County, and I keep trying to play Donne in my head with a Country and Western flavour.

But what makes me wince is the callous stamp inside the front cover:

"Discarded
from the Nashville Public Library"

Ouch

Couldn't that have been phrased a little better? After 20 years of faithful service?
No longer required, let go, not popular, deemed surplus to requirements.
Discarded is awful.
I am officially rescuing this book and promising to give it a good home!

And now good morrow to our waking soules