IN his contribution to You Say of August 11, George Cowley inquired as to what are the chances of catching an infection from borrowed or second-hand books.

His inquiry reminds me of the film The Name of the Rose, where several monks in an Italian monastery were fatally poisoned by licking their index finger to turn the pages of a forbidden book.

The favourite books in my collection are Shakespeare's plays and Aesop's Fables. I think the run-up to when Caesar received his fatal stab from Brutus and Aesop's tale of the Fox and the Crow make a good read. They are so true to life.

L SPITERI,

Worcester.