Sunday, May 31, 2009

Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen

I have an overdue library book that I am purposely not returning.  I know, this basically makes me a very literate thief, but I'm not planning on keeping it forever.  I don't know how long I'm planning on keeping it - I'm winging it, sort of.  

Actually, this book is paralyzing me.  It's called "The Lost City of Z," but that fact is irrelevant.  The main fact is that I was on a waiting list for a month before I got it, and had finished half of it when the due date rolled around.  It wasn't so compelling that I could cram it down in a day or two, but it wasn't so boring that I didn't care to finish it.  And because there's a waiting list for the book, I couldn't renew it.

So I didn't return it, but for some reason, I couldn't finish reading it, either.  I felt guilty reading contraband material, which some poor soul in Provo somewhere is desperate to get their hands on, and here I am hogging it.  But I wasn't done with it, and if I got back in line I would have forgotten everything I had read by the time I got it again, and it's not worth rereading.  To make matters worse, the book has since been released on Audible.com, but I don't want to waste a credit on half a book.

The book has been sitting on the floor of the minivan's passenger seat, waiting for me to return it for two weeks.  Keeping the book makes me feel incredibly guilty.  I can't bring myself to return it and call the whole endeavor lost, though - now there's actual money involved, too.  The only solution is to read the book, and quickly; but frankly, I'm only moderately interested in it anymore.

Thus concludes another episode in the continuing saga of  Emily, The Middle Class American With Too Much Time On Her Hands And Not Enough To Worry About.  I'll probably read the book, then return it and consider the fine my penance.  Or maybe I'll just return it.  Or not.  I don't know; it's a quandry.

1 comment:

Ranisa said...

I would feel the same way....here is my solution...take the book out read it before bed, if you would rather sleep than read it after the first couple of pages return it, if not keep and read it...and fast, I would hate to be the next person in the line.