How does a book just disappear?

I started reading a book today ... Machiavelli's The Prince. Very interesting, at least as far as I got, which wasn't very far. I took the turtles out - the weather's been fantastic today - and sat on the lawn reading as they walked around. Or at least mostly walked around. There was a lot of climbing on my legs and lap and shoes and bundled up cardigan and bag ... this was by the little ones ... Raphael walked a lot more but he also spent a bit of time on one of his favorite pastimes, tipping things over. He tried with the travel cage first, but it was unusually heavy - I brought all my things out in a bag (camera, phone, keys, book, an apple, a bottle of water, sunglasses, mp3 player, headphones) but when he crawled into the bag and peed in it I moved everything over into the cage - so he gave up and tried it with me instead. Ie, burrowing in underneath me and tipping me over. It didn't work. ;-) Anyway. I started reading the book. Read the introduction and various related bits, and ten pages of Machiavelli's text. Then when we had been outside for long enough I brought everything inside. Now I want to continue reading, but where's the book??

I know I brought it in with me - I remember putting it in the bag and I remember seeing it lying on the hall floor. It's not there now, but I know for a fact that I saw it. And I know where I expect it to be, too. I tidied up earlier, and what I remember doing with the book is putting it in the living room, on the floor in front of my chair ... so I could pick it up and just sit down with it. :-) But now when I want it, it's not there. It's totally gone from anywhere at all that I remember seeing it.

Well, of course books don't just disappear. The title of this post is misleading. I finally found it on top of the hamper in the bathroom. The weird thing is that I have no memory whatsoever of putting it there. Why would I even bring it in there? o_O This is actually kind of interesting. An illustration of the way the mind works. I obviously did bring the book into the bathroom. I'm the only one here, and that's where it was, so I've clearly done it without remembering it. What I remember doing isn't what I actually did. I remember it wrongly because it's not an important memory and I did it pretty much on automatic pilot, so it didn't register well in my brain ... and so I remember the rational thing that I should have done, instead of the irrational thing that I actually did.

And people wonder how religions could have developed if they weren't really true ... ?? :-D