35.1. No Drone Summer
A couple of weeks ago over coffee, I opened up The Oregonian for my regular morning read and saw this headline: “‘1984’ returned to Oregon library 65 years after it was due.”
Here’s an excerpt:
An 86-year-old library patron returned a first edition copy of George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’ to the Multnomah County Library this week, 65 years after its due date.
The library announced the return on their social media channels Tuesday morning with a photo of the book accompanied by a typed note from the patron, identified only by the initials ‘WP.’ The book was checked out in 1958 while the patron was a student at Portland State University, according to the note.
The patron said they felt ‘1984’ should be returned to circulation after all this time because parts of Orwell’s dystopian sci-fi novel ‘are as relevant today as they were 65 years ago.’ … ‘Simply add the words internet and social media, and you’re reading about today,’ the patron wrote.
I was thrilled to read this story for many reasons. For one, it was a break from the ambulance-chasing stories that have become the backbone of that daily paper. But more than that, I was excited to see a fellow Multnomah County Library patron thinking about the same things as me.