Book 'Em, Dan-o!

I am not the type of guy who likes to hold onto a book after I've read it. I mean what can I do with it once I've read it? The way I see it, if you own a book, there are only a few things you can actually do with it:

1. Read it. That's good. Until you've already read it, then you're like, "Where do I put this?" Which leads me to number 2:

2. (A little redundant, but I just started a list) Put it somewhere. Many people like to display books on a shelf. Others just like to store them on shelves, the primary difference being motivational. Some of us like to show off books to come off a certain way, (watch a lawyer being consulted on a TV show) while others might put their books in a den, where few visitors come. If it's a good book, that's okay, but someone is eventually going to walk in there. What if you're a little embarrassed by the fact that you enjoyed a particular book?

What if the book just sucked? Where do you put it? Even if it was good, you're not going to spend your waking hours reading it over and over again. You could make a pillow or a jewelry box or a bookcase out of books, or even a small home (though I question how it might stand up to the elements):

I remember when I was a kid, our couch broke, and for the better part of a decade, my parents kept it propped up on law books.

3. You lend your book to someone to temporarily get it off your hands. I guess this is like putting it somewhere, but in a way, it's more clever, because you are telling someone else, "Hey, put this somewhere." I have lent a lot of books to friends, and the more I think about it, the less I want them back. It's not like I am going to read a novel again. There are too many good ones, and I feel a lot better pawning off the job of finding someplace to put another book.

Personally, I am not comfortable with owning books, though I'll admit that there are some books I wouldn't give up so easily. Those are my reference manuals: cookbooks, fix-it books, music books. To be perfectly honest, though, I don't know why I hang onto them. I rarely cook, I can't fix it, and I read music very poorly. Still, these books contribute to my sense of what I'd like to do some day in a parallel universe where I can become a rockstar, carpenter, and master chef.