January 17, 2010
Over Due Books
I go to my public library several times a year. I am not like some who frequent those buildings weekly or even monthly.
I need to have a reason to go to the library. Maybe my printer isn’t working right and I need to print off something; that will motivate me to go. Or perhaps I’m taking a trip and want to get some travel books; then I’ll go. Or maybe I want to learn a little bit more about a specific topic, then I’ll go.
But when I do check out books, I don’t just check out one or two. I usually end up checking out about as many as I can carry! This gives me the option to obtain information from many different sources and then to decide what information applies to my situation.
This is the problem…. I never manage to get through all of those books in the regular allotted check-out time frame. It is a good thing that I have library email reminders to remind me when my books are due.
This is my normal procedure…. I will let the books sit around the house (sometimes in the car) until it is time for them to be returned the first time. When I read my reminder email, I will ‘frantically’ call the library and renew all of the books for another three weeks. Now I must start reading them… well at least start browsing the ones I think I want to read in greater depth. This leads to two stacks of books ~~ the ‘renew again and read’ stack and the ‘return before I get fined’ stack.
It is then that I finally set aside time to read the books I want to read and return the ones that I have schlepped all over for four weeks ( usually five) or more! And so after six weeks, and sometimes even another three week remewal, I will finally have started to read the books I checked out !
What about you? How do you read library books?
PS: Oh, any books that are on ‘hold’ for someone else I return immediately.
