Discussion: Where do you put your books?

Warning – slightly disgusting confession ahead.  😉

Since my room was re-furnished a month ago and I currently don’t have a bookcase, it’s come to my attention that there are certain places you should not leave your books. I’ve always been messy with books and I’ll admit, I leave them everywhere. You can find Game of Thrones sat on the windowsill in the living room, right next to my armchair. You can find The 5th Wave chilling next to my TV. So when A Court of Mist and Fury arrived two weeks ago and I didn’t have time to read it yet, I very carefully placed it on the floor beside my bed, resting on a pillow. I couldn’t wait to read it and I thought it would be safe there.

Wrong.

A day after I put it there, I went out drinking for my birthday. I strategically moved the book out of the way – leaving myself a walkway to my bed, knowing I wouldn’t be in the most capable of states – but it still wasn’t enough. Walking home at 4am, McDonald’s chips in hand, I felt fine. Me and my friend arrived home safely and proceeded to sit on the floor besides the toilet – more because I couldn’t be bothered to stand up and walk rather than because I felt sick. I promise you I did not feel sick.

Then she walks me to my bed, sits me down and I start to take my jeans off. And then it hits me – I do feel sick. My body lied. With about 0.3 seconds warning, I don’t even think where I’m aiming, I just go for it…. and instantly forget about it. I’ll deal with it in the morning, you know?

When the morning comes and I realise I have to deal with the horrible clean up, I check the items close by to see if they survived. My Topshop carrier bag full of new clothes is fine, my jeans are intact. My pillow is untouched. But my book……. my book is not. The precious book I’d been waiting so long for, was not even salvageable. Picking it up by the corner of the spine, it went straight in the bin, along with my hopes of reading it that weekend.

My clean, second copy.

All of this led to me wondering – where do other people keep their books, besides a bookcase? Have you ever accidentally wrecked/hurt a book by leaving it in the wrong place? Did you buy it again or just accept your fate?

(Yes, there are Christmas pugs on my bed in May. I’m not ashamed 😉 )