March 2024
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Bring Back that Book!

I am currently sitting at the book delivery desk at the Boston Public Library, staring at the man who works there like a crazed stalker. Why? Because the book I need is somewhere in this library building and I’m hoping against hope that the person currently using it brings it back in time for me to read it before the library closes at five.

This, my friends, is what happens when a book on your syllabus costs more than seventy five dollars.

I’m used to paying that much for a textbook (hello, computer science), but I refuse to plunk down that kind of cash when the book can not be reused a) as a doorstop or b) for killing imaginary spiders.

(Real spiders are awesome and I have no desire to end their little lives an earlier than necessary)

I ordered a used copy of the book online, but it got shipped USPS without a tracking number. Which means that it could show up Tuesday, or it could show up a month from now. And I have six chapters to read before Wednesday.

(Our mail comes late in the day on Saturdays. So there is a chance that it could show up today. In which case I will cry and throw things. Like maybe this book. Which won’t hurt anybody on account of it being so thin and all.)

My classmates clearly all have the same philosophy on book buying as me, because there is not a copy to be found in any library in the Metro Boston area. I waited a half hour for them to get the in-library-only copy, only to be told that someone else beat me to it. If only they could look these things up on computers…. The guy at the desk had no idea why he couldn’t find the book until his colleague remembered giving it to someone else.

So, I have some complicated math to do. If I need to read 1 book this weekend, but I have 0 copies and the library closes at 5pm and the book is $75 where X = how screwed I am, solve for X.

I’m thinking that X is a rather large number.

How late would you stay? I still need to read the damn thing and I can’t take it home with me. I’d come back on Tuesday when the library reopens, but I have band practice for a gig on Thursday. My only option is probably going to be to start calling bookstores.

Which is why I’d really like it if you could all send “bring that damn book back to the book delivery desk” vibes to the person who is reading it right now.

Update: The girl who took it out brought it back at 2:59, a whole entire minute before my deadline! I only had a couple of hours, but I managed to get half of my reading done. Hopefully, the copy that I ordered will show up in time and I’ll be able to finish up before Wednesday.

6 comments to Bring Back that Book!

  • Matt

    What book is it?

  • Major Problems in American History: Sports

    Someone brought it back, but I only had enough time to read half the assigned chapters. Hopefully, the copy I ordered will show up on Tuesday!

  • Oh man, I cannot count the amount of times I’ve been in your exact situation, but with obscure, out-of-print art history books and bizarre manuscripts. Our library had a 30 min or 1 hr time limit on using the reserved library copies, so reading there wasn’t really an option. I would photocopy double-paged on legal paper (which was convenient for underlining and notes, I’ll admit).

    Once I realized the fortune I was spending on photocopies (and the disaster it was making of my apartment), I started to decide the used or even new price on Alibris, Amazon, Abebooks etc. was not so bad, especially when I had to read the whole book. I do have some really neat books now, and I lament that I only have a box of photocopies for some of the others.

    If you do buy the book for your course and never want to read it again, you can always resell it, either to someone taking the class next semester, or through one of the used book sites. Good luck!

  • I have a copy on order from the internets, I’m just worried that it won’t come on time. I bought all of the books for the class on Amazon. Of course, the one book that I need for Wednesday is the one book that isn’t here yet. Murphy’s Law, right?

    Awesome art books sound like a good thing to have in your apartment!

  • I guess an electronic version wasn’t available? (Yes, I am so pro-Kindle now.)

  • There wasn’t a kindle version, but I did click the little button to request it!

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