It stands to reason as much as I love books and reading that the library would be a wondrous place to me. And it is! Oh how I love to go to the library! At least I used to. Before my late fees got out of control... again. How can I possibly owe the library over $80 in late fees? And truth be told, I've owed the library over $80 in late fees for well over a year now. Bah.
Not sure how it happened but it did. If I wasn't ashamed to admit it, I'd acknowledge it happened because I did not return my books on time. But $80 of not returning books on time? That them there represents A LOT of lateness! The same thing used to happen with video rentals (well not $80 worth, but consistent lateness), but now that we use Netflix we don't have that problem. Is there such a service for books? Maybe there should be.
Back when I was a child, every so often the library (the same library I go to now) would offer "Amnesty Day" when all fines were forgiven as long as the books had been returned. Ah the good old days. When I asked a librarian about that a while back, she looked down her nose at me and said "oh, we don't do that any more!" She was kind of snotty. No, actually she was really snotty. I personally think librarians should be open and friendly and welcoming.
I've made a recent resolution to pay off my fines this summer. I really want to go back and hover around the new releases shelves and peruse new offerings and try authors I've never read before. The other patrons sometimes offer up opinions that lead to interesting discussions about books they've already read. Then maybe I'll go back to the other shelves and wander up and down refreshing my memory of things I've read before and maybe even reading them again.
Am I too old to turn over a new leaf and be a more responsible library-book-checker-outer? I think not... I really want to try.
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