Old Library Books

CNN has the story of a man who returned a library book along with late fees that have accumulated since it was due in 1960--his check was $171.32. I don't know why that story appeals to me so much, but it does. Of course, the library had long since written that book off.

At least six years ago during a staff meeting in our school library, I happened to notice a book by Isaac Asimov about slide rules. OK, I admit it, I wasn't paying attention at the snoozer--I mean, staff meeting. Anyway, I pulled it out and looked at the last time it was stamped due (you remember how, in the pre-computer days, the librarian would stamp the due date in the book). It was last due on my 10th birthday.

That's right, it hadn't been checked out since the Ford Administration.

I took it to our librarian after the meeting and asked if I could have it; I didn't imagine any junior high would need such a book any longer. She coded it out of her computer right then and there and it now sits on my bookshelf at home--right next to the slide rule that one of our science teachers gave me the next day, after seeing my interest in Asimov's book. (No, it's not a K&G, it's a plastic slide rule.)

The brilliance that went into developing slide rules amazes me to this day.