Man checks out 100 books from Beachwood, OH Library, then burns them in social media post

https://www.cleveland.com/community/2025/05/man-checks-out-100-books-from-beachwood-library-then-posts-on-social-media-video-of-those-books-burning.html

66 points · 10 comments · view on lemmy.world

10 Comments

DarkFuture@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 1y

Sue him.

Spend the money on 300 books.

kevlar21@lemm.ee · 13 pts · 1y (2 replies)

Well he’s going to be facing quite the fine from that library.

AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee · 5 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Yeah, as if they're gonna pay.

jerkface@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 1y

Can be taken from his wages, if he has any.

HK65@sopuli.xyz · 11 pts · 1y (4 replies)

In the US, can you check out 100 books from a library at the same time? Why?

underscore_@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 1y

[Not US but] my local library service allows 300 simultaneous book loans, when I asked about why that number was chosen they said it’s so that people are not practically limited in borrowing. Given that typical loan period is 28 days even with 5 renewals you’re still looking at slightly more than 2 books read per day so that seems a reasonable allowance.

kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 1y (2 replies)

My first thought was car dependency. If it's a 20-minute detour or 45-minute dedicated round trip to stop by the library, you probably don't go that often. I read a lot as a kid, but I only went to the library maybe every other week. I distinctly remember the limit being 99 books (libraries are mostly run by counties here, so there are a lot of different sets of rules). I never ran into it, but I checked out dozens of books a few times.

Crashumbc@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y

My county library was like 8-10, 99-100 is insane...

HK65@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 1y

Yeah, on second thought it might have been a "there are no real rules for this" situation.

jerkface@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 1y

It's interesting to note that the man apparently did nothing criminal. This is a civil matter between him and the library, as though the library were a car mechanic or a dentist that he reneged on an agreement with.

I feel like someplace else might have recognized what I think can fairly be called hate speech, destruction of the commons, and terroristic intent (on a very small scale -- destruction of the commons specifically for political effect). Certainly he's not morally superior to someone who throws soup on a painting or glues themselves to the road for climate activism. I think such activists frequently catch pretty grand charges.