Laughs du Livre

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        Martin* Goes to the Library

One Summer day, Martin was a bit bored, so he decided to go to the library. He was early high school aged, so he just called out to his mom, "see you later, I'm going to the library."

The library was about 7 km away, but Martin *loved* to walk and it was a beautiful day.

Martin arrived at the library and found a really interesting book to read. The library had big windows, and some of them had window seats, which he loved. He sat himself down in a window with some nice trees outside and started reading his book. And he kept reading... And he kept reading...

The library was pretty quiet on a summer afternoon, but the librarian had enough tasks to keep herself occupied. As it neared closing time she triggered the usual announcement asking people to come to the desk to check out, closed down the computers, and finally, when it was time, she turned off the lights, turned on the alarm system, and off she went home.

Did I say something about it being a really interesting book? Yes, I did, however I forgot to mention that Martin was a bit of a space cadet...

The cleaner arrived to vacuum and dust the library. She turned off the alarm, turned on the lights, and got to work. As she got to the Adult Non-Fiction department, imagine her surprise when she saw a young man, sitting on the window seat, with his nose in a book.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"Reading a book," replied Martin, a little startled.

"The library closed hours ago!" exclaimed the cleaner.

"It did???" questioned Martin. "I guess I'd better go home then."

The startled cleaner decided that seemed like a reasonable solution, so she let him out the door.

In the meantime, Mom (who quite frankly is also a bit of a space cadet), realized Martin hadn't returned home. She decided to drive into town and keep an eye out for him. She spotted my house and thought, quite reasonably, that maybe Martin had stopped by to chat to his friend. I answered the door. No not here. I asked some questions. I informed mom that the library would have closed several hours ago, but that she should check there anyway.  Deja vu maybe???

Mom arrived at the library just as Martin was walking down the path.

The library adopted new rules. The librarian must walk around and check all library corners before locking up for the night. The rest of us all had a good laugh over it! I reassured the library manager when I saw her early the next week, that Martin was a good kid and meant no harm, but, well, he was a bit of a space cadet.

*Name has been changed to protect the guilty.

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I looked but failed to find any truly funny jokes about the Dewey Decimal System. Which is sad, because it is one of the sickest jokes out there (and Dewey himself was a questionable character). What's worse is that lots of libraries outside the US in English-speaking countries still use it.

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