Season's Greetings from the Passive Aggressive Gifts Department

I joined Paperback Swap a few months ago, in an attempt to get rid of some of the many, many books I own that I don't plan to re-read. Those of you who are smarter than I am might point out that *swapping* books won't reduce the total quantity of books I own, but I would ignore you.

Anyway, I recently got a copy of Nancy Farmer's teen novel The House of the Scorpion via Paperback Swap. Imagine my surprise when I opened it up to find this inscription on the title page:

For XXXX -

This looks great! Maybe this will be the book to turn you on to literature - but you'll have to read it to find out!

Love,
Nonna

Nonna, I'm guessing your efforts were in vain. But I'm sure your condescending tone and the recipient's clear lack of interest in reading had absolutely nothing to do with it.

If I thought forcing books on the uninterested would work, I'd be manacling them to chairs with their eyes jammed open and a book in front of them, like something out of A Clockwork Orange. But some people just don't like reading. As a book lover and trained librarian, this is painful to acknowledge, but it's true.

So for all you fellow bibliophiles out there, if someone you know and love doesn't like reading, buy them a goddamned video game or a basketball or a Bob Marley wall hanging or something, anything, that they will actually enjoy.

I'm off to do some Christmas shopping. Happy holidays, all!