seperis

I said "No", because though *some* people are that good a friend, most do not qualify. In particular, you have to know her well enough to know how she treats books.

Explanation for my reply to your poll: if you value both your friendship and your books, you don't want to put the two at risk. There is too much potential for trouble here. Either your friend won't cherish the books as much as you do and something will happen to them, or you'll get stressed out over them and want them back when she's not done reading them.

If she's really a good friend, she'll understand. And she'll appreciate that they mean that much to you, and that she means that much to you, and she'll go out and buy them herself. HBP is in paperback for $10 at Amazon. DH is on sale at all local bookstores for under $20. $30 is worth salvaging a friendship for.

Seconded. Lend books the way you lend money: with no expectation of getting them back.

Well, I voted no, but it really depends on how she reads books. I mean, whether she is more or less anal about books than you. For example, I have not problem lending books to my brother, because he treats them far more careful than I. That is he leaves a book pristine. I treat books decent, but paperbacks may end up with a slight crease on their spine and I only wash my hands before not in hourly intervals, so there may be some slight darkening of the pages from oils my hands will produce if I read for hours. My brother does neither, books he read wil be as new afterwards with no sign anyone has read them. Naturally he doesn't lend books easily, except to his ex-girlfriend, who somehow was even more careful with books than he. So provided that I'm likely to get the books back from a person, I'll lend if they treat books as or more careful than I, but not if they are less careful. And well, I try to be really fussy if I read a bool belonging to my brother, not opening it too wide and washing my hands a lot.

I voted no, as I once lent my flatmate my Napoleon Dynamite DVD to take to work and watch on one of their half-day slacking off sessions training things.

Three months later, half her office has borrowed it and she has no idea who has it at the moment.

And I don't like ND half as much as Harry Potter!

Wow, does your flatmate sound like my sister (who managed to lose two guitars by loaning them to friends who let other friends run off with them). I found it deeply significant when my mother admitted that me refusing to lend things to my sister wasn't about me being a selfish brat who needed to learn to share, but rather was down to my sister having a very hazy concept of property rights and tending to damage most items that spent time in her possession.

...upon whether (a) you plan to resell the books as mint condition first edition collector's items in, like, 100 years, given the mind-boggling size of the first run, it's going to take a while to appreciate in value; or (b) you have some funny-only-to-people-who-don't-share-it OCD thing about the condition of your books. If either of those, then no one is a good enough friend (except for svmadelyn, whose computer has sex with yours regularly, or amireal, who knows where I live.)

I said no because if you really were undecided enough to put up a poll and (possibly) listen to the answers from it... you've already made the decision.

My 'no' vote was kind of based off of my based friend. She's sweet, she's kind, she's thoughtful, but in ninth grade she borrowed one of my books, lost it, and then didn't replace. In my family, we used to spilling tea on other people's books, dropping other people's books in the bath...and then going to Borders and ponying up for an exact copy. I'll still loan her books...but none of my "special books." HP7's going for 18 bucks at Wal-Mart.

"based" --> "best"

dear god

Buy her a copy of the p/back version of six. *g*

If you love them as is, then it is worth the money to go out and buy the paperback of six to loan to her. While she is reading that, get on the local library list to check out book six and then let her read that one.

It really depends on how good a friend she is and how good she is with books. If I were here, I wouldn't WANT the responsibility of borrowing them.

:-)

That should be:

"If I were HER."

sheesh - so tired....

I said yes, but I would like to add the caveat that the yes is only applicable if she is the sort of person who can be trusted to revere books like holy artifacts.

You should only loan books with the expectation that you will never get them back. Then if they do return, you'll be happily surprised.

And it sounds like you don't want to lose these books.

I said yes, but with the proviso she's someone you trust.

B

...The version with the pretty pretty cover?

And the shiny all-color illustrations?

And the limited edition of prints, which means even if you were willing to shell out that amount of money twice you probably couldn't?

*look of horror*

DON'T DO IT.

Unless you know she is really really careful and returns books promptly, in the same condition? Don't do it. It is unpleasant to look at your friends with fear and concern as you wait for your books to return.

Always depends on the person in question, and whether they've got a good prior history of returning borrowed items in a timely fashion and good condition. I definitely wouldn't lend something really nice to a person until they'd built up a level of trust with me (or unless I acquired collateral of equivalent value, emotional or otherwise).

I do have one friend to whom I would loan a special book. But that's because she collects first editions and I KNOW how she treats any hardbound book.