2022, books, Family, Technology, Uncategorized

Nonny & the Library

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The Nonny Reading Program has been going swimmingly.  Using the suggestions from you all, I’ve been sending her books and she’s been gobbling them up.

There are only two problems.  The first (and most important) is that she has a VERY small condo with almost no bookshelf space, so the books are starting to pile up.  Secondly, she’s starting to complain about how much money I’m spending and wants to pay for the books (this is SO not happening).

I solved the first problem when I suggested she donate the books to her church; they have quite a robust food shelf/donations program and I said they should start a little free library.  Her church-mates ate this up.

The second problem was a little stickier.  A lot of people who know both my parents think that I got my stubborn streak from my dad; this is absolutely not true.  When Nonny digs in her heels she is all but immovable.   We talked about the library (the closest branch is quite close to her place) but she said that whenever she goes, she can’t find the books she wants.

I know that technology could help her but unfortunately Nonny and Technology are not friends.  And they are not likely to become friends.  Ever.  I suggested that I request the books she wants via the computer and when they came available, I would get the email and I would let her know and she could go get them.  She said this was fine but she never gave me her library card number so I could get everything set up, despite my asking her repeatedly.  I was starting to think this was her passive/aggressive way to telling me she didn’t want to do this.

I tackled the dragon in her den when we were there last weekend.  I asked her directly if she really wanted to do this.  Turns out that the library card issue was just Nonny forgetting about it as soon as we got off the phone.  We drove up to the library, I explained my plan to the librarian and within minutes it was all set up.  I can access her account from here and let her know when the books come in.  Easy peasy. 

I’m all set now and will be requesting the first couple of books this week.   No new suggestions needed right now but if this system works out, I may need some soon!

Have you ever lost or destroyed (accidentally of course) a library book?

40 thoughts on “Nonny & the Library”

  3. I’m pretty sure I haven’t lost or ruined a library book, but I can’t recall much of my earliest library years–age 5-10, I suppose. However, I have several cookbooks that have been used so many times over the decades that they’re falling apart. But we own those books, and it certainly wasn’t malicious intent . . . more like . . . are you ready? … delicious intent. 🙂

    Chris in Owatonna
    (amazed for thinking I’m that clever this early in the morning . . . or am I?)

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  4. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I remember losing a library book, then being in a panic over that because I had to face Mrs. Smith, the Victorian Lady Librarian, who ran the library with a ladylike iron fist. I don’t remember how that turned out.

    I have done three stints working in libraries in my adult life. At the Grand Rapids Public Library I worked at the front desk. But at that position I saw the returned books in the condition they were returned. The lion’s share of books were in great condition. There was the elderly cat lady who also was on the library board. She checked out all the newest books which the cats peed on. When she returned them, we threw them away.

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  5. Right after Husband’s stroke last summer, I returned all the books I could find that were near due date. Months later I was still receiving email notices about this one book that I was absolutely sure I’d returned. I went in and checked the shelves myself, and talked to them, it was an inter-library loan so they contacted, someone to make sure it wasn’t on THEIR shelves. I ended up paying a $12 fee..

    You know where this is going… Several weeks ago I was cleaning in the far corners of Husband’s room (you can see this doesn’t happen often) and found…. what else, the book in question. Donated it back to them, as they couldn’t refund me at that point.

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    1. This happened to me once as well. I did the same research – I was SURE I had returned it. Paid for it and then a couple of months later was doing a thorough cleaning of the car and found it pretty firmly wedged under the passenger seat.

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  6. Husband once left a copy of Common Sense in a night stand drawer in a hotel in northern Colorado. We got it back.

    Husband also is ashamed to say he has sometimes underlined in pencil in library books, and once had to have a book of Irish verse rebound.

    In the hysteria of doing my dissertation, I once left a pile of books from the University of Manitoba library on the boulevard near where I parked my car in Dickinson. By the time I figured outbwhere I had left them, they were gone. Several months later when I was in Winnipeg I went to the library to pay for what I had lost. I was told that the books were there, and someone had mailed them to the University library.

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  7. This is not directly on topic, but I am reminded to comment that I absolutely hate reading a book that has portions underlined by a previous reader. Since so many of the books I undertake to read are second hand ones and many of them nonfiction, I occasionally find that a book I obtain has been previously defaced by my predecessor.

    I am easily distracted in my reading. I can’t maintain my connection to the text if the television is on or if there is a conversation within earshot. Likewise, underlining tends to break my connection to the flow of narrative.

    I recently read comments by a bookseller and general literary figure (he had been one of the judges for the Booker Prize, etc.) advocating the practice of underlining and marginal notes as valuable participation with the author in absorbing the content of the book. I suppose that’s OK if you are the sole owner of the book and all those defaced volumes are slated to be cremated with you, but if your books outlive you, as many of them do, unless you happen to be an historical figure whose marginal notes become more valuable than the text they annotate, I contend that such vandalism is selfish and a disservice to future readers. I suppose, if you just can’t restrain yourself, light eradicable pencil might be allowable.

    Are you, or have you ever been, a member of that society of book vandals?

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  8. If this message appears twice, it’s because the first attempt vanished.
    This is not directly on topic, but I am reminded to comment that I absolutely hate reading a book that has portions underlined by a previous reader. Since so many of the books I undertake to read are second hand ones and many of them nonfiction, I occasionally find that a book I obtain has been previously defaced by my predecessor.

    I am easily distracted in my reading. I can’t maintain my connection to the text if the television is on or if there is a conversation within earshot. Likewise, underlining tends to break my connection to the flow of narrative.

    I recently read comments by a bookseller and general literary figure (he had been one of the judges for the Booker Prize, etc.) advocating the practice of underlining and marginal notes as valuable participation with the author in absorbing the content of the book. I suppose that’s OK if you are the sole owner of the book and all those defaced volumes are slated to be cremated with you, but if your books outlive you, as many of them do, unless you happen to be an historical figure whose marginal notes become more valuable than the text they annotate, I contend that such vandalism is selfish and a disservice to future readers. I suppose, if you just can’t restrain yourself, light eradicable pencil might be allowable.

    Are you, or have you ever been, a member of that society of book vandals?

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    1. I enjoy seeing another person’s reaction and contrasting it with mine. One of the reasons I don’t use our local library is it has a very poor collection. A second reason is they tell me I have not returned a book when I have. So I take it off the shelf and show them, they accuse me off lying. So I pay the fine as a donation (twice). Other times I say I have returned it, they say to go see if it is on the shelf and bring it to them. (Twice). Another time I went in and it was not on the shelf but it was on the cart to be reshelved I could see behind her. And she was the third reason I quit.
      A woman who worked with my wife at the town library was dubbed by one of my favorite students the polyester witch.

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      1. Hennepin County has discontinued library fines. The reality of this is that I never have a due date any longer but I just can’t stand the thought of having a late library book. Last month, I got discombobulated about the date and ended up missing the due date of a book by a day. When I turned it in, I gave the librarian a quarter and told her I know there isn’t a fine, but it’s just not right for me. She laughed and said she “got it” and put the quarter in the register.

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        1. From what Robin tells me, they also tend to take a “the customer is always right” approach to claims of having returned books as well. I suspect that it’s a systemwide philosophy that comes from the top. It certainly colors the library experience.

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    2. Not once. Like you I wonder about underlining (or worse highlighting) that I occasionally find in library books. Renee – please tell Chris to NEVER DO THIS AGAIN. Thank goodness he has other redeeming characteristics!

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      1. The underlining I typically see and that poses a barrier to my smooth comprehension is not another person’s reaction or insights but rather what they apprehend might “be on the test”. As such, they are isolated facts, names, technical terms and not anything that might constitute enlightenment. I try, usually unsuccessfully, to ignore them. It seldom makes sense to my why they chose that particular item to underline.

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      2. I have a copy of a book that I got from my aunt, an anthology of American literature. Since she died a couple of years ago, I can’t ask her about it, but I think it is her teaching copy. She taught school for a year or two after she graduated. I don’t think she attended college, but there was perhaps an accreditation program that enabled her to teach. She wrote a lot of notes and comments in the book, presumably to guide her lessons. I don’t know that the book has any future, since it’s a sort of stuffy academic sort of thing that has been extensively marked up. But I still have it.

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        1. I have a set of the plays of George Bernard Shaw—multiple volumes—that once belonged to author Brenda Ueland. They have multiple annotations in the margins and might be of interest to anyone studying Ueland but she abused her books and it wouldbe difficult for me to read them without being distracted by her many notations.

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  9. Not a library book, but a valuable gift from my painting teacher, John Pogany of Sequim, Washington.  He gave me a copy of The Kasidah by Sir Richard Burton, a book illustrated by his father, Will Pogany. It was signed to him by his father. I loved it. I decided to take it with me to Europe and ended up leaving it in a telephone booth in Minneapolis. When I went back to get it, it was gone. I have never forgiven myself and in the years since, I have bought several autographed copies.  Cynthia “Life is a shifting carpet…learn to dance.”

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  10. The one and only library book destroyed on my watch turned out to be expensive for me. Book was left on the table next to the sofa and when I got home from work, it looked like it had snowed in my living room. That book wasn’t just destroyed, it was annihilated. It was a lovely picture book (I don’t remember the subject now) which was out of print (ouch) and I ended up paying the library $75. I never did figure out which of the dogs was the culprit/ring leader but you can bet I never left a book on that side table again!

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  11. I have one that I was never able to find to return to one of my libraries. They billed me for it, and the bill shows on my account, but they haven’t made me pay so far. The librarian said if it shows up they will take the charge off my account. Given how many books and audiobooks and CD’s and movies I borrow from three different library systems, I’m a little surprised that it’s only happened once.

    I also had to pay for two books that had gotten wet. An overturned cup of water. I suspect that incident was pet related, but I have no definitive proof.

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  12. (Clearer head and lower head pain but can barely walk and three weeks ago I was doing so well.) As a children’s librarian Sandy dealt with many ruined books. If the damage was more than minor, it was ruined. Most parents were apologetic and paid for replacement. Some were apologetic and upset about cost because as she knew it would be hard for them, but she never asked people to pay. She made sure they were welcome to keep taking out books. She had a couple older people who would pay for replacements. A few did not care at all. She never said anything to them either.

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  13. I have never lost a library book, but back in 1980, Bess, our airdale terrier, ate the cover of a rare book in Danish I had borrowed from the U of M library. That cost me $56.00. She also ate a pair of brand new shoes I had worn only once.

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      2. I don’t think it was price that inspired Bess, the wonderdog’s, appetite. Had she had a choice between that book and sheet-pan full of brownies on top of the refrigerator, she would, no doubt, have gone for the brownies. As I have mentioned before, we made a huge mistake when we rescued and renamed her. Her original name was Bandit, and we made the mistake of thinking that name unfairly maligned her. Our mistake was NOT in rescuing her, but in renaming her; she was one of the more memorable dogs we’ve been privileged to call ours. She was a piece of work, but she was also one of the sweetest dogs we’ve ever owned.

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