Re: [silk] Pecular Behaviour of White Ants

[Ramu Narayan <ramunar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>I offer as consolation, however, the observation
>(hope?) that you'll probably have indecent amounts of fun restocking
>thebookshelves.
>
>Udhay
_________________
So maybe I ought to jettison a couple of hundred more just to magnify my
fun. No thanks. I get my jollies from reading, not from buying. Prefer to
beg, borrow, steal or confiscate whenever feasible. But the fact is I was
forced to dump about 30 more since last posting, upon discovering a further
white-ant idiosyncracy: sometimes they leave the fringes alone, but simply
hollow out a large cavity from the middle, like the one in the Holy Bible
in which Tim Robbins concealed his rock-hammer in 'Shawshank Redemption'.
That took care of a few more Spinrads, Stablefords and Sladeks; also (this
is for Udhay) the first vol of Null-A is now completely null. Also all of a
very cherished writer, Terry Southern ('Red-Dirt Marijuana', 'Blue Movie',
'Flash and Filigree': does anyone know him?).  And a wonderful book called
'The Zen Gun' by F Barrington Bailey which shouldn't have been there in the
S section at all. Funnily enough (more entomological observations), most of
these were paperbacks picked up at one-dollar stores in the US, and not
easily restockable.

Practical point of this post is, those of you holding some of my books
(Kiran and Udhay), be prepared to hang on to them until I get my house in
order, at great expense. Scraping, boring, medicating, re-plastering and
re-painting. Apparently that's the only Final Solution for these critters.
And Divya - with thanks for the offer of 'Sword At Sunset' (off-list) - put
me on your blacklist for lending anything. This is war.

Ramu