Gulliver's Travels, a Puddle and an Iron

We interrupt our regular program for this small announcement:

I used Grammarly to grammar check this post, because as much as I like to think I'm always right, I'm often not. That, and my brain works faster than my fingers.

Now for today's post:

Every Tuesday my kids go to swimming lessons after school. It's one of those things they've been doing since they were old enough to be in the pool on their own, and we’ve been doing it for so long that some weeks I wish I didn’t have to take them. This week was no exception. Like I said last Friday, I’m not planning on running for Mother of the Year.

For the half an hour I have to sit in the steaming hot, noisy pool room, I divide my time between watching my daughter at one end of the pool, watching my son at the other end of the pool, and reading my book. This weeks’ title was Gulliver’s Travels.

Now, I have had this classic on my book shelf for a number of years, but (as with so many of my books) I have yet to read it. I started my BA in July, and one of the texts for my English major is Gulliver’s Travels. Yay! Finally, I would have to make time to read it.

For my LIT subject we’re only required to read book IV, a total of 68 pages.

I’m usually very careful about where I put my bag at swimming. As you can imagine, there is water everywhere. My green bag was on the floor next to me, I was engrossed in the weird talking horses when both my kids appeared in front of me dripping. So, Gulliver went into the bag and out came the towels.

Sadly, the bag had been sitting in a rather large puddle. The bottom was soaked, and since Gulliver is made of paper, he ended up soaked as well. Thankfully, my iPad managed to avoid the water since it’s less absorbent, and was sitting on top of Gulliver.

I swore a few times under my breath, shuffled the kids to the car, stuffed Gulliver with tissues and drove home, all the while swearing some more. I was mentally berating myself because I’m always so particular about the condition of my books. How could I be so careless?

I’m not sure how many of you have read Gulliver’s Travels, but I was quite enjoying it. The part that sucked the most is that there are four books, and the one that sustained all the water damage was the one that I had to read for uni. Book IV was soaked. Murphy’s Law states that it couldn’t have been book I…

 

It doesn't look so bad here, but it was!

Anyway, out came the hair dryer. I’d already resigned myself to the fact that the book was probably ruined, and I’d have to buy another copy, but I was determined to try and save it. Each of the 68 pages (plus those in the notes section) received a blow dry. When that wasn’t quite working, I resorted to the iron, and I must say I’m glad my husband didn’t come home to find me ironing a book. He probably would have committed me.

Gulliver is now dry. He’s a little creased and crinkly, but he ironed out quite well, and I have a reminder not to put my books in puddles of water (because obviously I need to be reminded not to do that).

 

Yep, crinkly…

Have you had a mishap with a book? I’d love to hear about it.

K x