The Man went past the bookstore again today, and because I'd been asking if he could remember the writer and publisher of the book I wrote about yesterday, he bought it for me.
Is this my Valentine's Day present, do you think? Other women get flowers and chocolates. I get a textbook that tells me how to kill people.
I got the title slightly wrong in yesterday's entry, but I'm not going to tell you the correct title because I don't want weirdos to find out that I've got it via a search. And suddenly this seems much more likely than before, because having performed my own search I have discovered something rather disconcerting: I am in possession of a rare book.
Yes, that's right. This deadly little tome is worth several hundred dollars.
It is also banned in several countries.
So what the HELL am I supposed to do now? What do you do with a valuable book you don't really think should be in circulation at all? I mean, I just opened it at random and discovered detailed instructions on how to decapitate a person cleanly. But there are only four copies available that I could find online, and ... well, if I hold onto it for a few years do you think this could be my pension?
What would you do?
Incidentally, if you want to guess the correct title of the book, PLEASE don't do it in comments. Send me an email if you must. (Do comments show up in Google?)
Friday, February 11, 2005
Now what?
Posted by Badaunt at 1:47 am 6 comments
6 comments:
Quite the quandary: Keep it out of circulation for the betterment of mankind; sell it on eBay and buy yourself something sparkly. I'd probably keep it on my bookshelf for my nephews to see and consider the next time they misbehave.
I would have to agree. Much as I'd like to see the book just out of morbid curiousity, I would feel much safer knowing I had never seen a copy because one of the few still 'out there' was sitting benignly on your bookshelf collecting dust.
(Yes, comments do show up in Google, or should... I don't think many would, unless their content was something like a famous book title or celebrity name. They'd also be pretty far down in the list, unless your page got thousands of hits a day or there were fewer than 100 results. Better safe than sorry!)
That's very trusting of you! If I left this within reach of my nephews they'd be testing some of the techniques within a couple of hours. Probably on each other.
Faerunner: It will be sitting on my bookshelf at least for a while, until I decide what to do with it. And that will probably take care of itself, because the way my bookshelves are (dis)organised I'll lose it in a week.
I'd keep it. I would think it would be a very cool book to have. Not, of course, to learn from, but what a cool book. Heck, if you don't want it, I'll take it!
Beth
http://supermom3604.diaryland.com
You could donate it to a special collection at a library, where it would be carefully monitored as far as who had access. It could be a tidy little deduction, depending on how taxes work where you live, too. Or you could start working on a 'banned book' collection. Either sounds fascinating to me.
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