When you’re turning to a sex manual from the 1920s for help in your failing marriage, well, let’s just say you can’t blame a book if it can’t be revived. But at least the family of a library patron who failed to return a 1926 how-to guide all the way back in 1959 has managed to finally bring it back, albeit 54 years late. [More]
library books
Library Waives $7,600 Fee For Book 91-Year-Old Man Returned 61 Years Late
By 6.16.14
Youth is wasted on the young, some might say, but not everyone tries to make up for the wastefulness of their earlier days when they’re all grown up. One 91-year-old man wasn’t about to let the capriciousness of his 30-year-old self go unanswered forever, however, turning in a library book that was 61 years late. [More]
Man Blames Library Book’s Tardy Return On World War II
By 3.12.13
We’re sure librarians have heard plenty of creative excuses for late library books over the years, but World War II provided quite a unique reason for an Estonian man who recently returned a book 69 years late. He says aerial bombing that damaged the library was part of the reason he wasn’t able to return it earlier. The library says it won’t charge him a late fee, even though he offered to do so. Whew. [Associated Press] [More]
Whew: Study Reveals The Internet Generation Still Knows What A Book Is
By 10.23.12
Us old folk who didn’t have our childhood catalogued in daily detail on social networks like to grumble about “kids these days!” Which is just a cranky way of saying the Facebook generation is spoiled by technology and probably wouldn’t even know what a book is if it’s not based off a hilarious parody Twitter account. But actually, kids these days not only know what real books are still, they’re reading them more than adults. [More]
Chicago Public Library's Amnesty Period Prompts Woman To Return Copy Of 'Dorian Gray' Overdue By 78 Years
By 9.4.12
Fear of the inevitably ginormous fine she’d face after hanging onto a Chicago Public Library copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde for 78 years too long kept one woman from bringing the overdue back to its proper place. But thanks to the library’s recent three-week amnesty period, the book has finally been returned. [More]
That Overdue ‘Twilight’ Book & DVD Could Get You Arrested
By 6.28.12
For more than four years we’ve been telling you about libraries turning to the police to crack down on overdue items, and yet some book-borrowing people out there have not gotten the message. Thus, a woman in New Mexico recently spent a night in jail because she spent two years not returning a copy of sparkly vampire novel Twilight and the DVD of one of the films in the series. [More]
Iowa Woman Arrested For Failing To Return Library Book
By 1.24.09
Thirty-nine-year-old Shelly Koontz was arrested for failing to return a copy of the The Freedom Writer’s Diary that she borrowed last April from the Jessup library. The library had tried to reach Koontz through four calls and four letters, one certified, which she refused to accept. Fed up, library officials asked to press charges, leading officers to visit Koontz’s home with three simple options: return the book; pay the library $13.95 so they could buy a new copy; or, go to jail.
