I Lost That Book! True Narratives.

[Extollager]

Over at the Penguin Travel Library/Literary Travel thread, Hitmouse posted today the following comment: "Re: A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby. That is a very good book. I bought a copy in the bookshop of the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay in 1990 and read it on the train from Bombay to Calcutta. It was later stolen from an autorickshaw in Madras."

Are there other great stories of book loss that people would like to relate? I'm thinking especially of books stolen from you, left behind, or misplaced, but also lost to fire or flood, non-return by borrowers, etc.

 

[Connavar]

My brother loaned some of my best books by literary talented authors I rate high. 7-8 books by Vance, Richard Stark, Bruen and he seems have lost them in some small town known for its University. Not as exotic as Bombay but I have had vivid dreams where I hurt him for not returning those books safely to me.....

 

[Extollager]

I'd include also tales of parents who threw away, gave away, or (perhaps through a misunderstanding) sold some of one's books here. It seems that last happened with some sf books of mine; they were willing to sell some of my undesired books for me and accidentally added some desired ones! No hard feelings at all, and I've hardly missed the books, but I think maybe one of them was an autographed copy of Varley's Persistence of Vision paperback. If that's not what happened to it, I don't know what did happen to it. Truth to tell, I don't much mind; wasn't a big Varley fan at any time.

 

[Bick]

I have one for you. I was reading a Paul Theroux while on holiday in Ecaudor (travelling solo). I was in the central bus station in Quito when my day bag was stolen by some youths who ran off into the crowd never to be seen again. I spent the next few hours reporting the crime in an Ecuadorian police station, filling in Spanish forms in triplicate. I had my camera, plane tickets and diary stolen as well as the novel. A further consequence was that I had no book to take on my (delayed) bus journey to Coca in the rainforest where I was headed. When I returned to civilization (Quito) 4-5 days later I sought out an English book store. I picked up The Woodlanders by Hardy I believe and read that on trains south, as I travelled down the Andes. This was 1998.

 

[Extollager]

Just reviving this thread after seven years in case there are untold stories to be told.

 

[Vince W]

Nothing fantastical about my book losses; floods, parents and unreturned loans mainly, although I have left books I couldn't finish on various planes, ships and trains around the world. I feel guilty about inflicting those books on unsuspecting people sometimes.

 

[Boaz]

Left my brand new hardback copy of the just released Passage West (a first novel) by Rishi Reddi (a high school classmate) on the airplane last week... I was almost finished...