Today, I tried to check out a book from the public library and apparently I owe them so much money ($33.60 to be exact) in overdue fines that I no longer have borrowing privileges. It takes a special sort of person, I think, to be cut off from the public library.
The most pathetic thing is that I probably only finished one of the books that garnered me the thirty dollars in fines. I blame this sorry book-borrowing behavior on two factors: a) my friend Heidi and b) Blockbuster.
When I was in college, I constantly returned library books late (quite late, far beyond the advertised grace period) but I never got any fines. Then my friend Heidi, who worked at the library, told me that the advertised grace period was not the actual grace period. All that really meant is that I kept my books a week or two longer, to the point where I did extend beyond the actual grace period, and I got fines. But because I had a friend working at the library, all of those fines were magically forgiven.
I used to pay a lot of late fees at Blockbuster--not $30 worth, but enough to keep my slackerly habits in check. Now, with the end of late fees, I continue to live with the illusion that no one cares when I return borrowed materials.
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3 comments:
Listen, missy, I hate to one-up you, but I once had fines at the public library totalling $156 and change. Not only were my borrowing privileges revoked, they were gonna arrest me, or something. My first husband used to joke--or was it a joke?--that BYU's library should open a wing paid for by my late fines. I have, however, mended my ways and no longer let my library fines get above, say, $10. The video store fines, however, are another deal altogether. Those I blame on my kids.
I am banned from several video stores in SLC (including the Blockbuster, Hollywood, & The Tower), so I've sworn and oath of reform. My new-found timeliness is rewarding, I think. My mom & pop place down the street (where I've yet to garner one single fine) knows me by my phone number. "Oh hi 712-XXXX!" they say when I enter. They like me because I am a prompt returner of videos, I think. It is far better than the embrassment of having to present yourself at the counter and be denigrated for keeping Soylent Green out for a month.
For whatever reason I've always been pretty good about returning books which probably has to do with working in a library during school, even though I had the power to wipe out any given fine or extend my borrowing priveleges to infinity.
Now, of course, that does not extend to borrowing books from friends. As they are with me, I am terrible about being timely with books people loan me. I also have several out to people who've moved away from SLC. Talk about interlibrary loan.
I think Mega and Unhip are having a "who is living larger and freer contest." I won't even attempt to get in the game as I've never paid a library fee and have probably only paid a few dollars in late rentals. I am sometimes late on videos but I'm a cheap enough ass to usually talk my way out of those fines. Of course, as Mega reflects in her recent post, there's a cost involved to living small and less free.
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