Books

A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. so the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion.

~ Umberto Eco

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When I returned all of my books to the library, the librarian said that the computer system was down so they were forgiving all the fines.  Otherwise, she would have had to charge me $1.50 for each book.  I said that computer problems are sometimes good.  She grunted.  I think in agreement.

I asked if the library had slow since classes ended.  She said, "No.  We've been busy with people like you returning their overdue books.  Most of them have to renew some of the books and it takes them 20 minutes to figure out which ones."  She paused, then looked up at me.  "You don't need to renew any of your books, do you?"

"No," I said quickly, trying to curry favor.

"That's good."  She continued to scan my books back into the system.  

"One good thing," I said, "Is that I know how many books I can check out at a time because this is all that I can carry."

"Yes," she concurred.  "We have people returning them in carts and boxes and bags..."  I thought about asking if they came with ribbons and tags because she sounded a little like that line from How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but decided not to mention it.