Borrowing Adult Books
I get a lot of books from the library in Cupertino to read. But I always chuckle when I go to return my books. The book depository has a line up of slots to drop your books in. Here is a picture of it:
From left to right, the slots say:
Book Donations
Children’s Books
Children’s Books
Media
Adult Books
Adult Books
Yes, that’s right. It says Adult Books. Here’s a close-up:
The first time I returned a book to this library, a book on African art, I went to the book drops and walked back and forth trying to figure out which slot it went in. It wasn’t a donation, not a children’s book, not media, and certainly not an adult book. ADULT BOOK? Does the library have books that only people age eighteen and up can check out? Since when did the library start carrying adult books? And why hadn’t I seen them there? Were they behind a curtain I didn’t notice before? Or perhaps they were in one of the back rooms and you needed to know a secret knock to get them. Do they check IDs?
Knowing that the library didn’t actually have adult books, Josh and I discussed what a more appropriate term would be to put on the book drop, but couldn’t come up with anything good. The only thing we really thought is that the library people wanted a “not a children’s book, donation, or media” slot. But, that’s too long and too confusing to write on a little door-thing. Could they call it other? Or perhaps non-children? Way more confusing. Oh well.
I still snicker like a teenager every time I go there…