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Boomerang Book

I came home from a late night movie on Friday and saw this book on the kitchen table.

“That book looks strangely familiar.” I thought.

I took a closer look, and it came back to me. This is a book I read when I was a kid. At about age 10 (and for a number of years to follow) I was intensely interested in supernatural mysteries. I read whatever books I could get my hands on regarding ghosts, UFOs, cryptozoology, disappearances, and the like. During that time, this was one of the books I read. I recognized it and the pictures inside.

Not only had I read this book, but I had borrowed this particular copy of this book. I saw the note in the back declaring that the book belonged to “North Middle School.” There is no North Middle School any longer — now the building is an elementary school. Clearly this book had remained in the building’s library and one of my daughters had taken it out.

A look inside the cover revealed the record of how many times it had been taken out before 1989. I was in the middle school 28 years ago or so, and I know I took the book out and would have renewed it a number of times. The record shows somebody did just that. What’s more, this book was not borrowed from the library all that often. A number of stamps indicate that it went home with somebody during my time as a pupil at North Middle School. But there weren’t many takers in the 10 years that follow, until they switched to an alternate method of stamping (with a card insert.)

I mentioned this to my wife, and asked her who borrowed it. She said, “M borrowed it, and she’s had it for a while now. She keeps renewing it.”

I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that she’s inherited this interest. But it still struck me as odd that this book has found its way back to me for a while.

Posted by James at April 30, 2005 5:57 PM
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