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Don't like a book? Check it out and never return it!

post #1 of 27
5/6/10 at 2:58pm
Thread Starter 
I posted this article on my Facebook page, but I wanted to repost it here, partly because this nutjob needs to be called out as often as possible, but mostly so I can watch Mis Zooey go to town on this busy-body.

Quote:
Longwood parent Tina Harden was so disturbed by references to sex and drugs and foul language in the world of fictional teenager Jenny Humphrey that she is ignoring overdue notices and phone calls from her neighborhood library and its bill collector.

Harden refuses to return several books connected to the Gossip Girl series that detail Humphrey's life, even though she's had them since 2008.

"If I turn them in, they will be put back into circulation and they'll be available for more young girls to read," said the mother of three, who keeps the four books hidden in a closet. "Some material is inappropriate for minors."

Harden said she doesn't want them banned, but she does want the library to put a warning label on the four titles — one in the Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar, and three in a spin-off series called It Girl — and make them unavailable to minors. The library refused but has agreed to re-shelve them in the adult-reading section.

"If we denied access to this particular title, it would be censoring," said Jane Peterson, the county's library services manager.

That's not good enough for Harden, who said that as a taxpayer she should have a say in which books land on the libraries' shelves. "They're supposed to be public servants," she said.

The libraries have multiple copies of the novels in the series. If her library privileges hadn't been revoked, Harden said she would try to check them all out.

She owes about $85 in fines.
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post #2 of 27
5/6/10 at 3:08pm
I used to work at a library a few years ago. This joker would get the police (and a collection agency) called on their thieving teabagging butt

EDIT: If I were in her home town, I'd figure out what books she likes to read and then never return them. "Librarys exist to serve the public, I'm a tax payer, and I don't like the books you read.. sorry!"
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post #3 of 27
5/6/10 at 3:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson View Post
I posted this article on my Facebook page, but I wanted to repost it here, partly because this nutjob needs to be called out as often as possible, but mostly so I can watch Mis Zooey go to town on this busy-body.
Nah. I'm too busy workshopping the most colorful, intricate, carefully-detailed way to call you a rape apologist that I manage to bother with Mrs. Lovejoy and her one-woman crusade to make sure the entire country knows she's a douchebag. This is going to be the Fabergé egg of internet insults, brother. Wait for it.

And Jesus Christ, Kate, way to miss the point.
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post #4 of 27
5/6/10 at 3:14pm
MissZooey, we eagerly await your version of Dickson's well deserved beat-down.
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post #5 of 27
5/6/10 at 3:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissZooey View Post
Nah. I'm too busy workshopping the most colorful, intricate, carefully-detailed way to call you a rape apologist that I manage to bother with Mrs. Lovejoy and her one-woman crusade to make sure the entire country knows she's a douchebag. This is going to be the Fabergé egg of internet insults, brother. Wait for it.
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post #6 of 27
5/6/10 at 3:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissZooey View Post
Mrs. Lovejoy and her one-woman crusade to make sure the entire country knows she's a douchebag.
Just to mix things up a bit and actually RE-rail a thread (seriously, guys, c'mon), that's kinda how I see it too. I mean yeah, it's retarded, but...so? Having trouble working up any real indignation over this. Granted, it can set a very bad precedent and it shouldn't be just casually dismissed, but at the end of the day she's just a douchebag. An ill-informed, wrong-headed, completely naive and short-sighted douchebag.
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post #7 of 27
5/6/10 at 3:36pm
Five bucks says she really hates rape, though.
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post #8 of 27
5/6/10 at 3:37pm
To add to what Butler said above: the librarians in her town have totally got this. They're making fun of her sanctimonious ass in the break room as we speak while they call Baker and Taylor to order replacement copies of those books.
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post #9 of 27
5/6/10 at 3:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissZooey View Post
To add to what Butler said above: the librarians in her town have totally got this. They're making fun of her sanctimonious ass in the break room as we speak while they call Baker and Taylor to order replacement copies of those books.
Miss Zooey, and also call the police, no? At the library we worked at we called "taking the books and refusing to return them" theft. If she claimed they were lost and we billed her, and she refused to pay the bill, we'd call a collection agency
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post #10 of 27
5/6/10 at 3:42pm
Not to defend this lady, but in this case, she's a concerned parent and taxpayer who lives in Longwood county with a right to check out whatever books she wants to.
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post #11 of 27
5/6/10 at 3:43pm
Whoops, disregard my last post - I only read the first few words of the article. i was distracted by a bee flying around near my window.
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post #12 of 27
5/6/10 at 3:45pm
The inevitable report to the state franchise tax board should be interesting, in terms of her reaction to it. We might get some TEA Party action going on as the steak cut fries to this burger of philistinism and prudery.
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post #13 of 27
5/6/10 at 3:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor View Post
Not to defend this lady, but in this case, she's a concerned parent and taxpayer who lives in Longwood county with a right to check out whatever books she wants to.
Oh, yeah. She totally has the right to steal these books from the library. Because that's the way to lodge a complaint. I mean, it's not like every public library in the country has a collection development policy that outlines how members of the public can and should raise concerns about materials they find objectionable.

eta - I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE, TREVOR.

eeta - And I am deeply ashamed that I fell for it.
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post #14 of 27
5/6/10 at 3:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor View Post
Not to defend this lady, but in this case, she's a concerned parent and taxpayer who lives in Longwood county with a right to check out whatever books she wants to.
Exactly, it's not like she's censoring censoring.
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post #15 of 27
5/6/10 at 4:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissZooey View Post
And Jesus Christ, Kate, way to miss the point.
I don't think I missed it at all. Someone thinks that theft is a form of protest, and my point is that hopefully law enforcement will give her a friendly wake up call
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post #16 of 27
5/6/10 at 4:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Princess Kate View Post
teabagging butt
heh
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post #17 of 27
5/6/10 at 4:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor View Post
Whoops, disregard my last post - I only read the first few words of the article. i was distracted by a bee flying around near my window.
4 hours sleep and medication, Trevor?
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post #18 of 27
5/6/10 at 9:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Princess Kate View Post
I used to work at a library a few years ago. This joker would get the police (and a collection agency) called on their thieving teabagging butt

EDIT: If I were in her home town, I'd figure out what books she likes to read and then never return them. "Librarys exist to serve the public, I'm a tax payer, and I don't like the books you read.. sorry!"
How do you know she's a teabagger? I envy your mind-reading skills.
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post #19 of 27
5/6/10 at 9:39pm
Thread Starter 
She caved.

Quote:
"There was a certain amount of good that could come from me holding the books to make a statement, and I felt like that was achieved," said Harden, who has three teenagers. "I feel like I had done my part to help focus attention on this."
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post #20 of 27
5/6/10 at 9:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Princess Kate View Post
I used to work at a library a few years ago. This joker would get the police (and a collection agency) called on their thieving teabagging butt

EDIT: If I were in her home town, I'd figure out what books she likes to read and then never return them. "Librarys exist to serve the public, I'm a tax payer, and I don't like the books you read.. sorry!"
Except her library privileges have been revoked, so really, you'd only be punishing the other patrons who might want to check the book(s) out for themselves.

And as usual, I agree with Zooey, humiliation and scorn is the best punishment for irrational, pearl clutching fraus--unless your last name is Palin.
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post #21 of 27
5/7/10 at 12:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson View Post
Our long national nightmare is over.
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post #22 of 27
5/7/10 at 2:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dross View Post
Our long national nightmare is over.
No shit.

Jesus, you'd think this was over some notable literary work. These books are shit.

I'm guessing that, like most libraries, they're woefully underbudgeted. Somewhere there are stacks of books on literature, science or the arts that could be in circulation there. In their place...the collected works of von Ziegesar, Cast and Meyer. The giants!
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post #23 of 27
5/7/10 at 6:50am
Thread Starter 
Yeah, but first they go after the trash, and everyone shrugs and says, "Well, those are awful books anyway." Then they come for Catcher in the Rye or Slaughterhouse Five.
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post #24 of 27
5/7/10 at 7:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson View Post
Yeah, but first they go after the trash, and everyone shrugs and says, "Well, those are awful books anyway." Then they come for Catcher in the Rye or Slaughterhouse Five.
When they came for the Gossip Girl novelizations, I said nothing...
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post #25 of 27
5/7/10 at 10:25am
The books came first, and are much worse than the TV show.
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post #26 of 27
5/7/10 at 10:40am
and you know this how?!
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post #27 of 27
5/7/10 at 11:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Evi View Post
and you know this how?!
...because it's fairly common pop culture knowledge?

Quote:
Originally Posted by soylentgreen View Post
No shit.

Jesus, you'd think this was over some notable literary work. These books are shit.

I'm guessing that, like most libraries, they're woefully underbudgeted. Somewhere there are stacks of books on literature, science or the arts that could be in circulation there. In their place...the collected works of von Ziegesar, Cast and Meyer. The giants!
Money doesn't really enter into it. I'm sure that, like most public libraries, this collection has, among other things, books from the western canon and more lowbrow fare. That's how it works.

There was, in the early 20th century, a sizable debate in libraryland as to whether or not collections should be prescriptive or suited to popular tastes (this debate, btw, was all tied up in borderline racist impulses to "civilize" immigrants and brown people). In the end, public libraries do a little bit of both, though this is still a point that all proto-librarians are coaxed into arguing during their collection management coursework.
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