I have been labouring over how best to ask for the return of one of my poetry books (My Best Poems, Part 1, Celebrating Nature) from an acquaintance, when I read the following quotation in “Oxymoronica”, p.173:
NEVER LEND BOOKS, FOR NO ONE EVER RETURNS THEM;
THE ONLY BOOKS I HAVE IN MY LIBRARY
ARE BOOKS THAT OTHER PEOPLE HAVE LENT ME.
ANATOLE FRANCE