I have cleaned out my bookcase, and discovered there were books I guard that I never returned in 3 situations:

  1. Not returning public school class literature books or textbooks, from more than 20 years ago.
  2. Public Libraries of cities I no longer live in, and are at an International distance from me, from more than 20 years ago.
  3. Friends I have lost wayward contact with but I still have books that I STOLE from their bookshelves, from more than 20 years ago.

I feel like this guilt might be preventing me reading, in some ways. I don’t know where to begin to resolve it effectively to return these books, if they need/want/have to be returned.

  • thisgeekwrites@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I work in a library and I cannot tell you how excited we get about long-overdue books being returned. Everyone from the circulation staff to the catalogers in the back loves seeing books that have been checked out for a long time and particularly impressive specimens (think 20 or 30+ years) are usually taken from office to office so everyone gets to see it. I’ve never heard anyone ever shame the person who returned the book or gripe about the fact that the book should have been returned sooner.

    (I’ve only just realized while typing this out how bizarre this must sound. I swear, librarians aren’t starved for entertainment – we just love books.)

    • mooseyoss@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Well, I have known librarians and I actually find them to be of my favorite type of people, so it doesn’t surprise me. Thank you so much for your response! I’ll do my best to return all of the stolen books sooner rather than later.