You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover
I made my bimonthly trip to the local library earlier today. In the pockets of months when I have a lot of free time (which unfortunately, have been on the increase and not the other way around) I like to read a few good books.
So, I walk up to the circulation desk to check out. The woman behind the counter holds up one book and says:
Woman: "This one is a rental."
Me: "Excuse me?"
Woman: "A rental. It's a book from our pay collection. These are popular titles. It will be 20 cents."
Me: "Oh ok, but I don't have any money on me at the moment."
Woman: "Oh no, you pay when you bring it back. It's 20 cents...per day. If you bring it back tonight though, it's free."
Not wanting to look like a cheap skate, I of course, rented the book. Walking away, a few thoughts occured to me:
Wow. Am I THAT old school that I remember when all library books were free, like all the time?
quickly followed by...
At 20 cents a day, the logic here is to deter patrons from keeping any one book out for too long. Yet, the average patron keeps a regular old book for two weeks. If you kept a book you are paying 20 cents a day for at two weeks you would be paying $2.80. Of course with these books, unlike the FREE rentals, there really isn't a time restriction. So, if money is no object, you can keep the book for as long as you like under the pretense you will pay for all the days you have it. I mean you could have it an entire month and pay only $6.00, depending on the month you get it in. (30 days have September, April, June, and November. All the rest have 31, except for February.) If that were the case, the whole "getting the book back early in order to make it available to other people" idea kinda backfires horribly, huh?
And whatever happened to good, old-fashioned waiting lists anyhow?
The other thing that struck me odd was that she said if I brought it back this evening the book would be free. I wanna know, is there something about me that screams SPEED READER!, One With No Life To Speak Of, or was it just the fact that I had the time to be at the library on a Monday afternoon that had her suggest this option? I understand the deal lady. Geez.
Now if you'll excuse me. I have a book to finish before the 11 o'clock news comes on.
So, I walk up to the circulation desk to check out. The woman behind the counter holds up one book and says:
Woman: "This one is a rental."
Me: "Excuse me?"
Woman: "A rental. It's a book from our pay collection. These are popular titles. It will be 20 cents."
Me: "Oh ok, but I don't have any money on me at the moment."
Woman: "Oh no, you pay when you bring it back. It's 20 cents...per day. If you bring it back tonight though, it's free."
Not wanting to look like a cheap skate, I of course, rented the book. Walking away, a few thoughts occured to me:
Wow. Am I THAT old school that I remember when all library books were free, like all the time?
quickly followed by...
At 20 cents a day, the logic here is to deter patrons from keeping any one book out for too long. Yet, the average patron keeps a regular old book for two weeks. If you kept a book you are paying 20 cents a day for at two weeks you would be paying $2.80. Of course with these books, unlike the FREE rentals, there really isn't a time restriction. So, if money is no object, you can keep the book for as long as you like under the pretense you will pay for all the days you have it. I mean you could have it an entire month and pay only $6.00, depending on the month you get it in. (30 days have September, April, June, and November. All the rest have 31, except for February.) If that were the case, the whole "getting the book back early in order to make it available to other people" idea kinda backfires horribly, huh?
And whatever happened to good, old-fashioned waiting lists anyhow?
The other thing that struck me odd was that she said if I brought it back this evening the book would be free. I wanna know, is there something about me that screams SPEED READER!, One With No Life To Speak Of, or was it just the fact that I had the time to be at the library on a Monday afternoon that had her suggest this option? I understand the deal lady. Geez.
Now if you'll excuse me. I have a book to finish before the 11 o'clock news comes on.
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