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If you were anything like me as a child, you were rather irresponsible with the whole concept of borrowing from a library. School libraries were a bit different than county locations, because lets be honest your teacher, your parents, and the scary woman who you were reasonably sure lived in the library at the school could all hound you to return your borrowed materials (That last part may have been idle conjecture on my part). In my case that mainly consisted of Encyclopedia Brown novels, but my local, county library had so much more to choose from with so much less oversight.
So much time spent on copies of this series that were decades older than myself
The lax enforcement of library policy, and the general snubbing of my nose I did at the 5¢ per day or whatever the late fee was (see what I mean?), led to me burning a fair few bridges with a particular county that shall not be named. In fact the last time I went to try and get another card from that county, I found I owed more than $100 in late fees from items I had checked out from the ages of six to nine.
If I had known they were going to make such a stink about MAD Magazine, I wouldn't have bothered
Eventually I plan to right things with said county, I'd rather not have the man as embodied by a septuagenarian librarian hounding me for late fees down the line. In the mean time, I've moved to the adjacent county and my all too common name remains yet unsullied in their library computers. Filled with a new resolve to responsibly use the resources the fine taxpayers of Minnesota were goodly enough to provide to me, I went and picked up new library card and have been reading up a storm.
Since I was a kid, I have been able to sit and digest books provided I wasn't interrupted; I remember getting through the first Harry Potter in two sittings, I had to come back as dinner with the visiting grandmother who gave me it was in proper order. I was looking forward to reading more, but what I hadn't anticipated was the due dates motivating me to flip pages to get the books back on time.
Not to mention I have already saved some cash on one of my more expensive literary habits, by requesting them through the local library. Hush is really good btw, Loeb is one of my favorites.
The other service rendered by your kindly local library, seldom talked about since the advent of torrenting and now various Youtube clones hosting your favorite shows mere hours after having aired for the first time, is that of DVD/CD rental location. This too was more useful when you wanted to rip video or MP3s for your portable devices, which I did with a fervor and in no small part contributed to my then stockpiling fees.
Despite the plethora of readily available digital video sources somethings are a bit harder to come across, or you don't always want to watch them at your computer.
Thanks to the Saint Paul Public Library, my girlfriend will be able to heed the advice of this sci fi classic, which she damn sure wouldn't have had she had to watch it sitting at my PC. This is important stuff people.
I am on my third novel proper, River of Doubt a biography about Teddy Roosevelt's journey down the Amazon after his failed bid for a third term in the early part of the 20th century, which was preceded by two Neil Gaiman novels; I have already made my way through a ton of graphic novels from my local branch as well. This is all without having tapped the ebook resources which should provide for ample diversion all while maintaining the semblance that I am well read.
If you don't or have not, give your local library a go, you could save some money on your media intake, and enjoy all it has to offer. I really have been pleasantly surprised over the course of the last couple of weeks.
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Reading is fun. You should come play in the reading thread
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$100, wowee. I once kept a copy of Marlfox for 6 months and only had to pay $10.
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how did it go when you were trying to sign out a book and they were like actually you owe $100 dollars.
did you just say oh... one sec let me get my wallet and then never go back?
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On September 26 2013 04:44 ComaDose wrote:
how did it go when you were trying to sign out a book and they were like actually you owe $100 dollars.
did you just say oh... one sec let me get my wallet and then never go back?
In my head I imagined the women behind the counter jumping out with Tazers and forcing me to pay it, but really they just look up your account (I had to ask for a new card, and had a couple accounts due to my common name), and say there is an outstanding balance that must be paid before I could check out materials.
I told them I couldn't afford to pay it at the time, but would do so later. Wound up moving to Ramsey County before going back to a Hennepin County Library again.
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On September 26 2013 03:44 Jerubaal wrote:
$100, wowee. I once kept a copy of Marlfox for 6 months and only had to pay $10.
Oh man I remember Redwall from when I was a kid, those books were great.
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On September 26 2013 04:47 ThomasjServo wrote:Show nested quote +On September 26 2013 04:44 ComaDose wrote:
how did it go when you were trying to sign out a book and they were like actually you owe $100 dollars.
did you just say oh... one sec let me get my wallet and then never go back? In my head I imagined the women behind the counter jumping out with Tazers and forcing me to pay it, but really they just look up your account (I had to ask for a new card, and had a couple accounts due to my common name), and say there is an outstanding balance that must be paid before I could check out materials. I told them I couldn't afford to pay it at the time, but would do so later. Wound up moving to Ramsey County before going back to a Hennepin County Library again.
Hennepin County Library
bwahahaha the county that must not be named has been named!
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That V for Vendetta cover reminds me of the Anonymous face.
Also, $100 fees!?! I thought they weren't allowed to continuously add fees to your account after a certain amount of time or value. Although that was just the way it was for school libraries. I suppose it's different then for public libraries.
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On September 26 2013 14:24 Epishade wrote:
That V for Vendetta cover reminds me of the Anonymous face.
Also, $100 fees!?! I thought they weren't allowed to continuously add fees to your account after a certain amount of time or value. Although that was just the way it was for school libraries. I suppose it's different then for public libraries.
That would be where they took it from, the graphic novel is pretty old in comparison to the movie. I think eventually they just charged me for the books.
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hahaha awww so nostalgic!thanks for sharing. the part about "the lady who you're pretty sure lives there" reminded me of how i used to think library overdues were such a huge deal. Now its like wow, no one really cares. Such good memories. Goosebumps, bernstein bears, shitty books about boys hockey teams, harry potter, silverwing.. damn
I remember in grade 12 i signed out a hardcover copy of the english patient by michael ondaatje, and my mom had to payi think it was $40 dollars or something ridiculous and earlier this year i saw that same book in the bargain bin for like 50 cents... jeeze.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/71/Encyclopedia_Brown,_Boy_Detective_(1963).jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.ioffer.com/img/item/146/349/015/KBpt.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/dI97gim.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4Lo5Dna.png)
