Library book returned 150 years late in Australia

I really like libraries and use them frequently. It is kind of amazing to me that any of us, including me, managed to accumulate rather large book collections from Barnes and Noble or Amazon or wherever when the libraries have just about everything and you can have it for free. Well, free with tax money that is. I think the reason why all of us bought books was for purely vanity reasons or so you could show off when friends come over.

Libraries have very lax rules all around the world and one of them is the late return fees that honestly, they will waive almost all the time and even if they do not it is such a small amount of money that people just pay without complaint.

There is something that is kind of funny when a book is presumed lost a while ago and then it resurfaces. 150 years late is pretty special though and that was something that happened in New South Wales recently.

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If you can't read roman numerals I will help you out and tell you that this book was published in 1858.

This book was lost a very long time ago to the point where the exact date that it was checked out from the library isn't even known. The library itself has moved several times in that part of Australia and the records were lost in time. The only reason why the homeowner who found it even knew where it might have belonged was because of the primitive stamp on the title page.

Nobody knows how it happened, but the book ended up getting bricked behind a fireplace and it was only discovered when the owners of the house decided to do some renovations.

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This is the lady who found the book and for whatever reason she hasn't released her name. I could probably find it out but that is not why I have this picture. The picture is to show that the book, in her hands, is in extremely good condition for a book that is nearly 170 years old.

The reason why it was so well preserved was because there was zero airflow to the area behind the fireplace and it was a very dry environment that was kept dry perhaps because of the fireplace being used in the first place. It was warm enough to dry any moisture that might have accumulated but not hot enough to burn anything. This regular temperature increase is attributed with preventing any sort of mold or insect presence that would deteriorate the book in regular environments like, well like the library itself.

The library quipped that the overdue fines would be around $20,000 but they were waived. The book, although it isn't any sort of famous publication, has been put in an airtight display case at the library and is considered part of the "collection of significant items."

It does seem strange to me that someone would put a book into an area behind a fireplace. That doesn't seem like something that could happen by accident. It makes me think that perhaps there is more to this story than we know. Records about who might have checked out the book and placed it there are long gone and I think it would be kind of cool to do a very thorough evaluation of the pages of the book to see if there is some sort of ledger or treasure map or some sort of code.

Why would anyone hide a book in such an impossible to locate place? IT doesn't make sense to me.

I tend to focus on horrible news stories and the really sad state of our media in modern times but honestly, this is the only kind of news that I actually trust these days because there is no political spin or advertising spin on it.

I will say that I think people should utilize libraries a lot more than they do. I have a e-reader but it just isn't the same as an actual paper book at all.