Wow it's been awhile since I posted here!!  >_<  Not gonna make excuses and just admit I got lazy.  But I'm going to work on writing more and trying to post here more often (I know I say that all the time).  That being said I did say I was going to try to write a little more are book related things (just in general) so below is something I wrote up not too long ago, simply because it was a hilarious conversation and still is. Enjoy!!

            About a year or so ago my friend had gotten her very own Kindle.  It was a Touch different from mine (since I got mine years before) and had been a Valentine’s gift from her husband and she was very happy to get it.  We were discussing the benefits and as a Kindle veteran I was going over the various ways to search for and download free books, how to check for deals and then I mentioned that since had a library card for the local community one around the corner from her house she could borrow e-books from there.  

           

“And the best part,” I said.  “Is you don’t have to remember to turn it in.  Once the two weeks is up it gets removed from your device automatically.”           

            “What if you’re not done yet?” she asked oh-so-innocently. 

            “Oh you just turn the WiFi off on your device then,” I replied.  Silence filled the room and I looked up to see not only her but our respective husbands (who had been involved in another conversation) looking at me with shock. 

            “You steal library e-books?” my friend asked.

            “I don’t steal them I just keep them longer.”

            “Sooooooo you hijack them?”

            “It’s not hijacking!  It is just turning the WiFi off so that the license doesn’t get removed from your e-reader.”

            “Pretty sure that’s a form of stealing,” her husband offered.

            “IT IS NOT! It’s not like me turning off the WiFi keeps the e-book license on my account.  It’s still removed from it and it still goes to the next person in line.  I just get the chance to finish reading it.  And the minute I’m done I turn my WiFi back on and boom! It’s gone.  I get the lovely letter saying my loan has ended.”

            “That’s still hijacking the book,” my husband said (we had this conversation before he was just enjoying others seeing my brand of crazy).

            “It is not hijacking!  If this were a physical book yes that would be hijacking and bad library behavior since someone else is waiting.  But it’s an e-book!  Once my turn is done, it gets moved off my library account to the next person and they get to read it.”

            “But what if that isn’t how it works?”    

            “I’m fairly certain I would have gotten a nasty letter from an e-librarian by now if that were the case.”

            “I have this image,” my friend mused, “of a group of librarians in trench coats a la Carmen Sandiego looking at a map of the world with your picture in the corner of it.”

            “There is no such thing as library police!!”

            “For your sake I hope not.”

           

            This is pretty much how every conversation I have had on this subject goes.  People look at me like I said I liked kicking puppies and kittens for fun when I tell them how I extend my e-book loans if I’m not done by the time it’s up. And growing up with libraries and the politeness that comes with being a book patron with regards to the waiting list I get it.  I would never hold a physical book with a wait list past my time.  In point of fact I will turn a book that has a wait list on it in as soon as I finish it even if I have 13 days left on my loan.  That’s just polite book behavior.

            Now, with e-books I will admit I’m a bit of a rebel with a library card.  Even before I went to a Internet light (read not at all) existence I was ‘guilty’ of turning and keeping the WiFi off on my Kindle and tablet to give myself time to finish a library book.  One book I held for over a month and with that came its own brand of hell let me tell you because it is a pain to have WiFi available and keep it off your Kindle for a whole month!  And I do this because I don’t like long breaks in the middle of reading a book.  I do read multiple books at once but I very rarely neglect one of those books longer than a day or two before I pick it back up.  The thought of going weeks without finishing a book?  I’m sure that a layer of hell for most of us, unless it’s a book you gave up on or have to read for book club and finish it because this book will not defeat you!!

            But that’s another article for another time.

            Now I’m not cruel or sadistic.  If I knew that this kept the book from passing on to the next patron in line I wouldn’t do it.  But it doesn’t. So in a sense it is a victimless crime because the book still is getting read and in some situations by multiple people at the same time.          

            I won’t lie.  I’ll keep doing this when it comes to e-books.  As I mentioned there are not library police who lie in wait and throw darts at a copy of your library card if you do this.  There are not library detectives who skulk you while your browsing the e-collection online to track down the ISP of your e-reader.   Honestly no one will know but you.  So if you’re not done with that e-loan just yet, go ahead click on your Settings and turn off that WiFi.  Take your time finishing it and reveal in your rebellion.  I won’t tell.

            And if we happen to end up in library jail together?  At least we’ll be able to talk about the books that got us there and reassure each other it was worth it.