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Heather Cadenhead's avatar

When I was in high school, my parents loaned a Frank Peretti book to another family. My mom wanted that book back badly. A couple of years passed. “I don’t think they have any intention of giving that book back,” my mother finally said. As fate would have it, I had a sleepover planned at said family’s house. My mom instructed me to scour their bookshelves and bring our Peretti book back home. I did as I was told. Sure enough, there it was: “This Present Darkness,” comfortably situated among their other books, like it belonged there! I pulled it out carefully, checked the front cover. Our family name was inscribed in the front, a reminder of this book's true owner. I slipped the book into my backpack and — sting operation complete — triumphantly produced the volume upon my return home. I was given a hero's welcome.

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Ruth Gaskovski's avatar

You had the guilt creeping up in me as I read along. Yes, there are some borrowed books on my shelves (The Essential C.S. Lewis and a Dorothy Sayers mystery - from a church library which no one ever uses or keeps track of...) and some other non-fiction volumes from generous friends. However, in my defense, I liberally let people borrow from our shelves and quite frequently never lay eyes on the books again (still trying to track down A Landscape of Dragons by Michael O'Brien!). Once I was walking along a street in Switzerland and found four copies of "For the Children's Sake" by Susan Scheaffer set out in a box labelled "free". This has been wonderful as it is one of the first books I recommend to new homeschoolers and I have been able to simply pass them out, saying "no need to return this to me; you can keep it or pass it on" :)

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