In Good books?

Have you repaid your debts on time? Are you obedient, reliable, trustworthy, following customs? Are you generous and into charity, helping your community? If yes, congratulations! Your name goes into the ledger with a clean record, the “good book.” Otherwise, beware your name may end up in the dreaded “black (bad) book.”

This was real life in the Middle Ages and early modern period (1400s–1700s). Back then, being in someone’s good or bad books was ‘literal’ because officials, clergy, and even households kept written records (ledgers, registers) of a person’s reputation.

Over time, the literal act of recording someone in a book shifted into a figurative expression. Today, no one writes your name down, but your behavior and relationships decide if you are in someone’s “good” or “bad” books. For example: “Jaee is in the teacher’s good books. She completed her assignments on time.

I am thinking of ‘people-pleasers’ now. Don’t they often aim to be in everyone’s ‘good books’? While the idiom isn’t strictly about people-pleasing, I feel an obvious overlap here. Many people pleasers secretly think,

“I just don’t want to fall into their bad books.” 😀

Well, language changes, but books remain. Because being in a ‘good book’ or reading a ‘good book’ will matter,won't it? 😉

Bookstagram at https://www.instagram.com/readwithjaee?igsh=MWc2eDVnNzNlZG5yMw==