Freakonomics (At the Speed of Libraries)

That’s supposed to be an incredibly witty play on “at the speed of light”. I’m sure you’re laughing quite hard, so you’d better stop – people are starting to stare.

If you know me in real life, you’ll know I often complain about how slow libraries are, particularly those in my county. I’ll always reserve a book, wait about five years, see myself being put on the waiting list even though the site claims about ten libraries have it available, and then wait another sixteen years, before the library screws up and gives me something weird that someone else reserved. For example, I recently received a copy of Angels and Demons in Hebrew. Seriously.

In any case, it was Tuesday night (last night) when I reserved the book, “Freakonomics”. (Highly recommend it, by the way.) This was at 7:21 PM. I then stepped out to walk the dog, as I so often do. No one else was in the house.

After my speed-walk, I returned home at about 7:28 (hey, I warned you it was a speed-walk. It was cold) and noticed a message on the answering machine. I listened to it, and heard:

“This is the ____ public library, and we have a book, Freaka…freaka…noh-mix?, ready for Isabella ____ to pick up.”

Afterwards, as the machine often does, the date and time was told. But instead of “Tuesday, 7:25 PM”, I heard:

“Monday, 7:25 PM.”

A little too fast for me.