The Library Book of No Return

 Right before our Disneyland trip I was at the library picking up dvds for the long car ride.  That's when I spotted this: the 14th and final book in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson.  I couldn't believe it!  The book had come out only the day before and I was sure there were 50 holds on it.  Someone must have put it out on display before checking the holds.

Gleefully, I snatched it up and checked it out in all its pristine newness.

 Unfortunately, at a rest stop in Gandolf-hit Utah, the book fell into the snow.  We were aghast--water damage!  Death!  Destruction!  We dried it off the best we could but figured we were sunk.  Amazingly, though, when it dried there was no water damage.  In fact, the only way you could tell anything had happened was that the dirt from the dirty snow was on one side of the book.  No longer pristine and lovely, but looking like pretty much any other library book.

Here, you can see that the dirt is superficial and didn't travel inward on the pages.

When we got back to Idaho Nathan went to return our library stuff.  We were pretty sure the book was no big deal--it was only a little dirty--and if we dropped it off in the drop box they would probably never know the difference.  But feeling guilty, Nathan went to the front desk and explained what had happened.  Our fine?  $20.00

WHAT?!

Basically, we now owned this book and had to pay for a new one.  I called in to pay the fine over the phone and politely expressed my amazement that a little dirt warranted a brand new book.  "Well," the librarian confided, "it's because you were the very first person to check it out.  If you had been 5th or 6th or something, it would have just been a little fine.  But any amount of damage on a new book requires an automatic new book."

Which makes absolutely no sense.  So because 4 more people didn't get to read it in its perfect condition before it was "destroyed", now they have to order another book and keep the 50 people who have requested it waiting for weeks?

We love this series and had planned on buying it eventually, but I didn't envision "WITHDRAWN" stamped on the side or the library's lame-o stickers stuck all over the binding.

What do we learn from this?  Don't ever be the first person to check out a book!  And if your kid rips a page out, just quietly tape it back in and don't say anything!  (At least, it seems like that is what they encourage you to do!