The staff at Earlsdon Carnegie Community Library in Coventry, UK, recently experienced an unusual situation that librarians don’t see every day. A book that has been 84 years and two weeks overdue was returned to them.
According to the Earlsdon Carnegie Community Library Instagram post, a man named Paddy Riordan came to the library and returned a book his grandfather borrowed back in 1938. Riordan also paid a fine of $20.50, which was calculated using the rate that was in place back in the 1930s. The book was Red Deer by Richard Jeffries.
When reached out to by BBC, Riordan explained that he discovered the book while sorting out the belongings of his mother, which passed away recently. Seeing that the book belonged to the library and was never returned, he decided to ”expunged my grandfather’s crime.”
The funny thing is that despite the book being so long in his family, Riordan never actually read it.
“I felt rather bad as I was returning it – they asked if I had read it and I hadn’t,” Riordan shared. “Maybe I should try and take it out again just so I can read it myself. It really wasn’t that exciting a book though, honestly.”
