booktastic

My plan for the day was this: grocery shopping, trip to the library (to finally return those overdue books) and post office to mail some bookmooch requests.

Well, I quickly talked myself out of the post office. It just seemed like a bit much for today - and my husband is going to have a good amount of free time this coming week, so I figured he can probably mail them for me. (I know, I know… I could have mailed them. I’m just lazy feeling today and didn’t want to walk the extra five blocks.) I did the grocery shopping shortly after getting up (so that we would have some food to eat for lunch) - and then at three, when my husband left to go to work, I walked the seven blocks to the library and returned my books.

I was returning Catering to Nobody, the Rita Mae Brown book and that other one I checked out (back when I posted that picture of the books I was checking out and complained about the size of the omnibuses… As I had anticipated, since I seldom feel like toting an enormous, heavy book that won’t fit into my purse along with me, the two omnibuses didn’t get read. It couldn’t have helped that I checked them out in December either, when I had a billion other things to do.) I meant to return them before we left for our very short Christmas vacation, because they weren’t overdue yet then.

That didn’t work out. (It’s a long story. Attempting to put it in a nutshell: my father-in-law, Mr. Hall senior, was giving us a ride from Chicago to Kansas City for Christmas. He drove up on the 22nd, was going to stay the night, and drive back down with us on the 23rd - and I thought we might have an opportunity to drop off my library books before we headed out of town on the morning of the 23rd. However, on the 22nd he heard some bad weather forecasts for Chicago and decided that, rather than get stuck up here, we’d better make the eight-hour-drive back that night. Hence, Mr. Hall and I spent the evening of the 22nd scrambling wildly to get ready for the trip which we hadn’t even packed for yet. My library books were forgotten about, but they were the least of our concerns.)

I also thought about returning them a couple days ago on the 1st, but talked myself out of that as well since the library was (I think) closed and I wouldn’t be able to pay my fines anyway… So I returned them today. And guess what? It turns out that the cost of Library fines at the Chicago Public Library DOUBLED on January 1st!! Cripes! Now, I’m not going to gripe about that too much - after all, it was my fault they were overdue, and 20 cents a day isn’t exactly highway robbery - but really? Doubled? Has the cost of training the librarians to be unsmiling and taciturn gone up?

Okay, okay, that was a little much; sorry, Chicago Public Library Librarians. And I must say that today I actually encountered the most cheerful librarian I have ever seen at the Chicago Public Library (any branch). She smiled and wished me a Happy New Year and everything.

Books returned and paid for, I wandered out into the stacks, even though I had agreed with myself that I was not going to check out any new ones. I idly strolled over to the Mystery section thinking that I was just going to “glance around” since I happened to be there - after all, it seemed like a waste to walk seven whole blocks to the library and then immediately walk home again. However, then I spied Dying for Chocolate, the next Diane Mott Davdison book after Catering to Nobody - sitting on the shelf. I hemmed and hawed for a moment, thought about sitting and reading it for a while at the library… Then just gave in. After all, it was just a little bitty paperback, and I’m already more than half way through A Monstrous Regiment of Women - I’ll be needing a new book soon. (A lame excuse: I already have plenty of books to read… but the title of this one has always appealed to me…)

So, in the end, I did still come home with a book in my bag (promising the cheerful Librarian to bring her some more fines in about a month’s time). But no more until this one is read and returned! And that’s final! — Mrs. Hall

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