May 28, 2005

She's Got it Bad

Queen Shenaynay

Vacations are supposed to forge deeper bonds among family members. Sometimes, however, this simply means you learn that your loved ones are even more quirky and eccentric than previously suspected.

As in this choice exchange:

Fa-So-La-La: "Hey Mamadah, what are you reading?"

QS: "Fellowship of the Ring."

Fa-So-La-La: "But what copy is that? It can't be ours, because it's in too good a shape. Our paperback is all crumpled and dog-eared."

Whereupon Shieldmaiden interjects, matter-of-factly: "I ironed it."


She. Ironed. It.
The girl has been known to wear crumpled clothing with oblivion, but by cranky, her Tolkien is crisp and starched. Honestly, I didn't know her Tolkienia had progressed to that degree. But I guess anytime you read one copy of a book FIFTEEN times, it's only polite to iron it before shelving it for others to enjoy.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand it perfectly. The girl knows that clothes come and go. She will outgrow them, or they will go out of style.

But "books are our friends." She has a "relationship" with that book. And evidently, she has a relationship with THAT copy of that book. It can't be traded, upgraded, or washed. So it must be ironed. Hm. Makes perfect sense. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Hey Quenn L... this is the M&M snatcher. I can understand C's doing that... sounds like something my sister would do.

Javamom said...

"Pressing" (as in book pressing), and "pressing" (as in ironing)~

~makes sense to me! We press tissue paper to re-use, when we have multiple birthdays-in-a-row, so why not a paperback book cover?

(grin)

Lynn Bruce said...

But, Javamom... she didn't press just the cover. She pressed alllll the pages. As I said, She's Got It Bad.

;-)

X said...

All the pages? Wow! I have no such loalty for any of my books. Of coarse, I haven't read them 15 times. I would rather do something else that read something I have already read. If that makes any sense whatsoever. But anyway, Good luck to keeping that book that way; I know it gets a lot of use.

Unknown said...

Rock on Shieldmaiden. That is hilarious!

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Pipsqueak said...

lol!
I like my books... but I hate ironing.

Anonymous said...

Well, since she's done ironing that book, would she mind coming over here and doing some ironing for me? I have many books that would probably benefit from her attentions. What heat level do you use for ironing books? Cotton? Linen? I'm curious.

Javamom said...

I tried it...I must admit. I found a newer copy of Coppleston's three-in-one volume set of _A History of Philosophy_, so I'm going to pass my cheaper, 1960's copies down to a friend. One volume was crumpled as if a damp towel had lain (?) upon it.

After ironing the cover and all the pages, it is much nicer!

My book conservator/teacher might just cringe and beat me over the head with a roll of Japanese mending tissue!

LOL

Firefly, I used a low setting, such as silk or wool, and kept the iron moving quickly, in an outward direction. I wouldn/t go much hotter, or one could melt the adhesive from the spine into the pages, creating a sticky mess!

Just my quick thoughts on the matter!

Thanks for the nifty tip!

beatrice said...

Well, I did have an excuse:
the books had gotten terribly out of shape, plus I wanted to read them, so....when I had read five pages I ironed them! Two plus': one, I got to read the greatest liturature out there for the 17th time, two, the book was returned to its former glory! It all worked out frightningly well.