At first, readers might wonder about the title of this post. Isn't the credo of bookworms that you can never have too many books?
There was a story on our local news the other night about two guys who stole books from the library here in town. Between the two of them, they stole almost 250 books. The pair racked up over $5000 in fines. The books were found in the basement of one of their homes. They had attempted to remove the library labels from the books. They were charged with theft and sentenced to 90 days in jail each. It was mentioned in the report that they checked the library books out under their own names, which the reporter seemed to think was brazen. No, they were just using their library cards!
The part of the story that prompted me to write was the fact that the library allows patrons to check out 150 books at a time! 150. You can check out 150 books at one time from this library. This just amazes me. I'm kind of dumbfounded. According to the library website, you check out books for a period of 21 days (three weeks). This means if you checked out the maximum, you would need to read 50 books a week. If the books you checked out are not on hold by another patron, you can renew them five times. Assuming each renewal is for another three weeks (the website isn't clear about this), you could keep your stash of 150 books for a total of 18 weeks- or about 4 1/2 months. So you would only need to read an average of 8 1/3 books per week.
Pondering the possibility of borrowing 150 books at a time from the library raised many questions. I asked Erich about this policy. His mother worked at the same library for years. He worked there part time too. He was just as baffled by this policy as I was. He said he remembered it being 20 books for patrons, but staff could check out an unlimited number.
Among the questions I have: How long does it take to choose 150 books to borrow? Do you go in with a list or just wander through the stacks? How do you carry 150 books to the desk, and then to your car? Why do you need 150 books at one time? Do the people who check out 150 books at a time do anything other than read? How many people, other than these two crooks, take advantage of this generous limit?
To me, the limit of 150 books at a time is too many books. It is absurd. Although, there is a tiny part of me that wants to get a library card and try it out!
This is hilarious!! Well, maybe not the part where they allow you to check out up to 150 books at a time, because that baffles me, but I'm trying to picture you walking in, taking a look to your left, then one to your right, before getting down to business. You might want to bring the beagles and a cart to move your loot from the premises though.
ReplyDeleteBut joking aside. Has no one ever realized that this rule is kind of crazy? Sure sometimes you might need lots of books just for looking certain things up or only reading one or two chapters (say, for college or school), but other than that people usually want to read a book in its entirety, right? Reading 50 books a week on the other hand ... the motto of these folks seems to be "Life is short, read fast".
As to how long it would take to pick 150 books, I must say, to many probably not all that long. I know some fellow book bloggers who have wish lists a mile long so they wouldn't have any trouble choosing I dare say. Me on the other hand, I don't know, maybe if we split up and each of us picks 75 books? That might work.
I did think the same- that there were times when I was writing a paper in high school or college that I borrowed maybe 20 or so books, not with the intent of reading them but rather to skim for info for the paper.
DeleteI wondered how you would think of the 50 books per week. You read just about more than anyone I know.
Erich and I are still talking about this, and he thinks perhaps his Mom helped influence the 150 books limit.