They know I'm bad. The librarians, with their old-fashioned dark-rimmed glasses, and around-the-neck cords, stare at me with their piercing eyes. I've seen them around since I was a little kid growing up in Queens, New York. And so every time I walk through the big clear doors of the library, I feel like they keep a permanent record of me.
When I was a little kid, they kicked me out for doing my project with glue. (Supposedly, I was gluing the library pages together. Heh, what suckers.)
From seventh to ninth grade, I was kicked out multiple of times for kicking back with Dr. Seuss in the children's seating section. (I don't get what's the big deal. The "grown-ups" tables have boring wooden tables and uncomfortable chairs, while the kids get soft carpets and train-themed chairs!) I occasionally still sneak into the children's section to drive the librarians crazy.
"How old are you, young lady?"
"I'm ten years old, miss."
"Are you lying to me?"
"No, why would I lie?"
"You look too big to be ten."
"You're calling me fat?!"
Heh. Good times.
Besides things I do to purposely make the librarians' lives a little more interesting, I possibly hold the golden prize for "always-returning-a-book-ridiculously-late".
I'm really not exaggerating when I say my books are always returned late. It's not late by one or two days, it's late by a minimum of a month. Also, with seriously high late fees, my bank account will be empty within a time span of a year. (Oh, minimum wage jobs...)
I don't know what your library is charging you per day, but mines is charging me a quarter for every day it's late. I'm not sure if holidays or Sundays count, and to some people, it may not seem a lot. However, consider my procrastination habits and those quarters add up to even fifty-dollar bills. My highest fee was around $168, mind you.
These high fees for late books may encourage people to return their books on time, but to me, it only discourages me to ever check out a book again. Whenever I check out a book, I feel the librarian's eyes burning through me. I know she's either thinking in her head, "Not again," or "We're going to have a nice paycheck by the end of this month! Thanks for checking out this book, girl!" (I wonder why they hate me, then.)
At the rate of paying a quarter a day for a late book, I'd rather just buy the book since I know I will always be too busy to remember to mark a date on my Blackberry to remind me to return a book. The fees should be lowered a little bit, instead of taking advantage of me. I know those librarians are scheming a fast money-making plan off of me.
Note: Please don't take this blog too seriously. Though I am serious about the ridiculously high fines I have, I know the librarians aren't planning my financial demise.
... I hope.
Also, my current book is ten days late, which accumulates to $5 plus other possible fees I have no paid off yet, and growing! Maybe I should break my bad minimum-one-month-late streak, hm?
I bet that it takes a lot of courage for you to check out another book. I am just glad that I lost my library card and over here in Arizona the fees aren't that high. Also, librarians can be cruel. I avoid one library in my state particularly because one of the librarians did not take me serious when I asked for a book and they told me that I could look for it myself. I like friendlier libraries that are kind and welcoming.
$168? Now I feel better about my $16 fines. I like to check out movies and they have fines of $2 a day, so that certainly rakes it up. I tend to justify it by calling it a donation to the library.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tricia0711