A Few Book-Baths

      Today I left 11/22/63 in my locker (it was pouring outside, I didn't want to get it wet), and it's got me thinking about the books I've destroyed or mangled over the years.

1. Eragon- I loved this book sooo much (even after figuring that it was essentially a mash-up of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings)... I read it so many times that it literally fell in two! I was naturally scared to death for a bit (okay... that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it's true nonetheless) before I brought the two uneven halves to school, where a teacher did some fancy stuff with tape. To this day I don't know how it put it back together. About a year later, I sat and read on the swings, went in for dinner, forgot about it, and found it the next day, a wet heap of paper. Why I didn't think of rain, I don't know, and I was left with two halves of a soggy book haphazardly held together by peeling tape.
2. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers- My first time reading the book, on a trip to Disney World with family, I decided to bring the book down to the pool. We (we being me and my dad) sat at what I thought was far enough from the pool so that what we had would not get wet. Evidently that was not true- it received a light drizzle of water, enough to crinkle the pages, but not enough to cause the ink to spread. I was miffed, but it didn't ruin the vacation.

Long days and pleasant nights,
Neal