Why do people steal so many books (etc.) from public libraries?

I dunno, I guess I was pissed at the shitty things they made me do to keep me busy after I finished the real work. I just wanted to get my work done and read. Ironic. Or maybe not.

so its

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Libraries should be more mean. A few weeks ago, my good deed of the day was to take back the three books I'd borrowed from my local library in September 1999. They'd never even written to me to nag about them, and when I got there the total fine was a whopping £9.

my sister had a bunch of books out she kept meaning to read: eventually she noticed they were seven years overdue

i think she posted them in anonymously: she moved about four times in the in-between

they turned hackney library into the ocean

Trust me, I worked there long enough to know that none of the 12 copies of the pseudo-Shakespearean "Edward III" were going anywhere, much less any of the 15 copies of Fadiman's "New Lifetime Reading List" (a rather handy book, I do say, and one that contributed greatly to my future literary education).

Perhaps one of these days when I get some real income I'll pay them back with a hearty donation. Until then...at least someone's getting good use out them and reading more.

Really, the patrons were vile. I made a huge display around the two "100 Books of the 20th Century" lists that came out around then. I think in the three months that was up, maybe five books from that display were checked out. On the bright side, whenever anyone checked out anything vaguely literate or intellectual, even if it was for school, I always said something encouraging about the book. Of course, if they were checking out Oprah's latest pick of the month, I just checked them out and told them to have a nice day.

Does all that make me evil? I've been burned at the stake before.

Ah, the ultimate question - should we be thankful that Oprah has at least started people, whose reading tastes were limited to TV Guide, reading *real* books? (Ahem, maybe "real" isn't the best word choice, on second thought.) Anyway, I am really torn about such things - like if you're going to read, should you only read great literature? (And how is that defined?) Or should you read whatever it is that makes you happy (Steven King, Dannielle Steele, etc.)? Is the idea of having a literate population somehow less appealing if the vast majority only read, um, more "base" books/magazines? Or should we be thankful that they're reading and learning new words and new concepts and so forth - and just keep our fingers crossed that someday they'll investigate one of the books from the 100 Book of the 20th Century? Kinda like the debate in elementary schools about kids reading Harry Potter vs. Newberry winners.

I basically think that, ultimately, it's better to have people reading something rather than nothing.

(Wow, I didn't realize I was such a snob about such things!)

Actually, now Amazon is offering "The Oprah Edition" and the "Regular Edition" covers on various books that she's added to her Club. Apparently more than one person complained about Oprah seal.

I have to come by and clear all this mess up when I should be in bed, really, seriously now!

Julio's OG sentence = OK so whatever those things are then. well, they have them.

And he means those vertical plates placed right before the door which you have to walk in between to exit the building. Like, as he says, at yr local HMV. or Tower. or Virgin. or FYE. or Borders. or Barnes & Noble. The list goes on. Apparently it also includes Julio's local public library.

So you slide a magnetic something in the spine of the book (not a barcode) and unless it's depolarized at the checkout counter you'll make big beepity noises on yr way out and presumably one of the ladies will hop over the counter, chase you down and catch you in the back of the neck with a tomahawk.

You're all very welcome and good night.

Fascinating, huh?

And he means those vertical plates placed right before the door which you have to walk in between to exit the building. Like, as he says, at yr local HMV. or Tower. or Virgin. or FYE. or Borders. or Barnes & Noble. The list goes on. Apparently it also includes Julio's local public library.

So you slide a magnetic something in the spine of the book (not a barcode) and unless it's depolarized at the checkout counter you'll make big beepity noises on yr way out and presumably one of the ladies will hop over the counter, chase you down and catch you in the back of the neck with a tomahawk.''

thank you mr millar! sorry ppl. yes its a magnetic plate then, so I hope that's all cleared up.

and my other point was that while HMV and other big chains have security guards to catch ppl, public libraries don't (though librarians aren't always old, just been there this morning to order some books (cage and adorno stuff from other libraries) and the girl was young and very nice and good looking, my latest crush I think).

Yeah, I know. They're all raised and plasticky but I've never seen one of those in a book. I only mentioned it because idiots trying to steal books from the university library used to rip out the obviously-just-a-sticker plain barcode sticker used for identifying the book and march through the detector and get caught. They obviously thought there was something magical about black and white lines that was very futuristic and that librarians were stupid enough to design a system that could be disabled by a piece out of the page it was on. Yeah, the real thing is in the spine.

My high school got a 200-book everyman classics set the last year I was there, as did most of them: it was some kind of milennium giveaway. Over the year I saw a total of two of them taken out by other people. I ended up with a shelfful of the things at home but took them back in a sudden fit of conscience in the last few weeks.

yeah this other library i go to has that. i forgot abt it actually.

(This may be a very naive point of view.)

Not only is Nicole not kidding, I'm fully in agreement.

In my high school, they did the same thing, but instead of pulling out the strips, they just hid the books in their friends' bags.

By golly, we felt good after that one. (It was a book on Rock Journalism, for those interested.) We even tried to pull off the same stunt with a book on Electronic Music (from the late 70's - classic stuff) but due to a close shave the book was lost forever.

This was from a school library, mind, so the only people we were depriving of the books were a bunch of twats who'd never get anything out of them anyway. Then again, I'm probably just saying that to shirk off the guilt.

I can remember once I got caught doing this with another guy who actually had absent mindedly walked out with a book in his hand - I pulled off such a fantastic "Oh my, I'm dreadfully sorry," routine that I got off scot free, whilst the other guy (who, funnily enough, is into acting now) wasn't quite as convincing and had to go to detention. Hah.

how many librarians are there on ILx?

people who steal books from any library are bad people.

As I should know, having never returned a book about mysticism to the library of the College Theological Society.