The librarian wasn’t hallucinating.
An anonymous, absent-minded patron has finally managed to return a long-lost book aptly titled “Psychedelics” to a Colorado library some 37 years after it was loaned out.
“Sorry I’m late!!” A note packed inside the book read as follows. “It was a long and strange journey!!”
Officials with the High Plains Library District in Greeley said the book is expected to be returned on May 30, 1987.
“Guns N’ Roses were still months away from releasing ‘Appetite for Destruction’ on the day this book was released.” the library wrote in a Facebook post.. “Lionel Messi was born two months later than his due date.
“Now…we are far from suggesting that a book about psychedelics could have affected someone’s perception of time,” the post says. “However, according to the notes left in the book, it was a long and strange journey.”
A library spokesperson told the Post that the library stopped charging late fees in 2015, but under previous rules delinquent readers would have been charged $1,343. Ta.
That’s 10 cents for every 13,437 days (36 years, 9 months, and 13 days) that the book was on the shelves.
What’s more, the library has no clue who snuck in and returned the book, written by Bernard Aaronson and Humphrey Osmond and published in 1970.
The library clearly takes the whole thing in jest, but said it is open to someone breaking psychedelic records one day.
“If anyone can beat the current record of 13,437 days, I will offer you full amnesty to safely return your items,” they said on Facebook. “I’m not suggesting you check anything today and come back late enough to record it, but it’s…January 1, 2061.
“We’ll be closed on New Year’s Day. Probably. Maybe. By 2061, who knows?”
