A Scottish estate, a buried murder, and an unsolved mystery swirl together in Sarah Maine's, The House Between Tides.

Dear Person to Whom I Lent a Book

by Dana Rosette Pangan via Bookriot.com

I am writing this letter to you to let you know how deeply I am disappointed in you. Three months ago, you approached me, apparently because you know how much I obsess over books, to ask about that book that is being made into a film this year. I absolutely adored that book and I was overjoyed that you had expressed interest in it too, so I let you borrow my copy, on the condition that you return it to me soon and in the same condition. You see, I’m not a big fan of parting with any of my books, even when I’m not reading them—please don’t judge me—but you’re my friend, so I trusted you and let you borrow it.

And what a way to break my trust. First off, three months is not “soon.” Now, I get that you’re a busy person and that you have some real-life responsibilities to take care of, and you prioritize them over reading books, unlike some people I know (me). So, you know what, I understand. I can forgive you for not returning my beloved book within a reasonable time period. That’s fine, no big deal. But.

There’s this unwritten but sacred agreement between a lender and a borrower. The borrower must never, ever cause any kind of damage to the object borrowed. To break this unwritten pact is punishable by death. I think. I don’t know, I’m not a lawyer. Anyway, what I’m getting at here is that if I let you use something of mine, I fully expect that that object, book or not, will be returned to my hands in the same condition in which it left. So if I handed you a stain-free, creaseless book with its spine unbroken, it should come as no surprise that I would want you to give that book back to me in the same way, not in the sorry state my book was in when you gave it back this morning.

What I hold now in my hands is only a shadow of the beautiful volume that it used to be, like, I’m seriously considering putting it out of its misery. What in the world happened? The spine was broken (no one breaks the spines of my books but me), many of the pages are dog-eared (attached to this letter is a video presentation about the different kinds of bookmarks used in the civilized world), there are coffee stains on the cover (also attached is a link to the Wikipedia entry for coasters), and there are crumbs within a few of the pages (Did you really read this, or did you just eat on it? You should have borrowed a plate instead).

Look, I’m not even mad anymore. Okay, I still am, a bit. It’s just that, for the sake of our friendship and your status as a fairly decent human being, please, never do this again. Learn to respect other people’s property, especially if it’s something that a person cherishes. And maybe, just maybe, I’d forget about this unfortunate incident someday and even lend you a book again. If I do, I just hope you will have learned your lesson and never do this horrible thing to me, or anyone else, again. If not, I will take the book from your destructive hands and hit you with it.

Sincerely, Person Who Really Likes Books

Introducing The Look Book, Simon & Schuster Canada’s Seasonal Sampler of Great Canadian Reads

Starting this year, we will present a semiannual digital publication which will feature selections from new and upcoming Simon & Schuster Canada titles, with the inaugural list highlighting great Canadian fiction reads from our Spring 2016 roster.

The Look Book is free to download for all ebook readers here! 

We would love to know what you think! Share your impressions with us and with others using #TheLookBook

6 Reasons Why Eimear McBride's 'A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing' Is The ONE Book Every Book Club Should Read This Year

Bustle sums up the six reasons why McBride’s debut novel is your next book club pick! Check them out here.

13 Experiences Only Book-Lovers Have When Dating

“Most single people struggle with meeting new people, experiencing awkward first dates, and messy break ups... but bookworms have to deal with a whole other list of complications. In the already hard to navigate world of dating, book-lovers have to balance work, family, friends, love, and reading.

How can a book-lover deal? On top of all that, book-lovers have abnormally high standards when it comes to their ideal partners because the true loves of their lives exist between leather-bound covers, and no person IRL can live up to that. Sometimes the dating life of a book nerd can be rough.

If you love books, and have a love life, then you can relate to these 13 experiences only book-lovers have when dating:

1. You're usually too heartbroken over something in the book you're reading to even think about going on a date

Even though your last real-life break up was more than a year ago, you're still reeling from the death of your favorite character or the break up of your favorite couple in your current read. How can you even think about dating when your book has sucked all the hope from your life? Before you can love someone, you have to heal, and it's usually with the help of another book.

2. Your romantic expectations are rarely met

You've read about Noah and Allie, Scarlett and Rhett, Ron and Hermoine, so how can you settle for someone who thinks a text at the end of the night qualifies for romance? As a book-lover, you've experienced real love, albeit other people's love stories, so you expect something magnificent, something spectacular, something that makes your foot pop, but instead, you're stuck in a world of Chipotle and Snapchats in place of romantic picnics and love letters. Real life is just so unfair.

3. Before you go out, you look up your date's reading preferences on Facebook and search for his/her Goodreads profile

It's one thing not to have a Goodreads profile, because not everyone has time to curate a digital TBR pile, but it's an entirely different issue when the person you're supposed to go out with has awful authors listed on his or her Facebook page. What's that, there aren't any books listed in favorites? Cough, cough, I think I'm coming down with something and have to cancel...

4. You can't help but give a full-on character analysis to your date

Try as you might to keep your comparative literature tendencies to the margins of your book, you can't help but make mental notes about your date's character so you can over-analyze him later. The ticks, the color of his tie, the way he talked about his mother, IT ALL MEANS SOMETHING.

5. You automatically try and profile your dates as one of Jane Austen's leading men

Everyone is looking for a Darcy, but your online dating profile seems to attract strictly George Wickhams, and you can tell within five minutes of your date. The worst part? She doesn't even know that you're insulting her when you tell her she's being such a Willoughby.”

Read the rest of the list here!