A woman has returned a book she borrowed from an Auckland library nearly 68 years after it was due back.
The book, A.W. Reed’s Myths and Legends of Maoriland, was borrowed from Epsom Library in 1948 and was due to be returned on December 17 that year.
Epsom Librarian Zoe Cornelius said the woman came in on Thursday afternoon to return the book and chat with staff.
“She told me she was an Epsom Library member as a child, but they moved away and she accidentally took this book with her.”
The woman told library staff she got Myths and Legends out as a child, and was now a grandmother. She had read the book a number of times over the years she had it.
Cornelius said it wasn’t uncommon to have books returned after several years, but this was the oldest overdue book she’d seen.
The due date slip inside the back cover clearly states the borrower will be fined “at the rate of three-pence for the first week or part thereof, and one-penny per day thereafter”.
According to those terms, the woman would be fined 102.50 pounds for the 24,604 days it was overdue. Converted to todays money it works out at a whopping $7,321.43 fine.
However, Cornelius said the woman would “definitely not” be fined.
Cornelius said it was unlikely the book would return to the library’s collection, but they would look at preserving it.
26 Responses
is this true i returend a book 4 months later but not as bad as this it was payed by my aunty the book was a geronimo stillton book sorry aunty charrlotte
That is a lot of years!
WOW 68 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
im awesome
stealer
omg people
what the heck that is old
LOL HAHA
Wow! At least she wasn’t fined the $7000 of overdue book bills!
We still have a book overdue like 3 years
wow shes lucky she didnt have to pay that much wow do people even read that old book?
lol that’s how you know you messed up
If the library hadn’t been so nice she would owe them a lot of money. Also couldn’t they have mailed it with a note?
WHAT!? THAT’S A LONG TIME TO RETURN A BOOK!
What 68 YEARS IF I WAS THE PERSON WHO TOOK THE BOOK I WOULDEN’T Worry about it
lol
WOW!!!
thats a old book if the book was a person he would be like omg im so old
that is crazy who would do that ?
That is ridiculous!
So weird
I think it is right not to fine her I mean you can’t blame her for moving away right?
WOW
fine her
Why didn’t she remember to return the book before she moved away?
That’s so crazy who would return a book 68 years after they borrowed it That was a narrow escape!