57 Years Later, Even the Library Had Stopped Counting the Fines

[TexasTowelie]

In her 20th-floor apartment on the East Side of Manhattan, on a recent Saturday afternoon, Barbara Roston was busy explaining that she was definitely not a thief.

“It was a youthful indiscretion,” she said, “I didn’t mean to steal it.”

And yet, there it was, sitting on her desk: A faded green copy of “Gone With the Wind,” by Margaret Mitchell, that belonged to the Brooklyn Public Library.

It was 57 years overdue.

In her retirement, Ms. Roston, 72, decided to reread the book, which she had kept on her bookshelf for years, when she noticed the library’s markings.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/18/nyregion/57-years-later-even-the-library-had-stopped-counting-the-fines.html