Clifford Lindsey Alderman’s Symbols of Magic Amulets and Talismans is a great book—so great in fact that this one anonymous reader took it out for no less than forty-one years!

 

Image Via Amazon

Kirkus Reviews might have called this examination of charms of the past and present that “the information is poorly organized and unevenly detailed,” but someone must have liked it. Or, more than likely, forgotten about it completely.

 

 

But forty-one years? Honestly, that’s not the longest overdue library book we’ve seen on Bookstr. Right now 82 years bites the cake, but we’ll add it to the ongoing saga anyway. The good news is that, for all you readers out there with library books crammed into every forgotten crevice of your place, you could definitely be worse. How much worse? Well, it’s possible that this library book was missing for longer than you’ve been alive, so let’s just say BAD.

So here’s the story:

 

Image Via TripAdvisor

 

The Greensboro Public Library received an unexpected surprise in the mail when they received a copy of the book in the mail. Opening it up, it was discovered that the book should have been returned sometime in 1978.

News & Record reports that “[b]ased on the 5 cents-per-day fine (Sundays included) printed on the card sleeve, the overdue fine, not counting inflation, would be about $750.” Could that have been part of the reason the borrower didn’t return it earlier?

 

 

Greensboro Library hasn’t given away any information that would help us find the culprit, but if I were them I would just put in the mailbox so I didn’t have to put a return address on them.

(If I were them. In case you’re wondering, I’m not from North Carolina.)

 

 

Featured Image Via Greensboro.com