Better late than never, but after Friday, it'll cost you

MELANIE GREENE will see the unfamiliar faces this week. Perpetually tardy, obnoxiously overdue and with a smidgen of nagging guilt, the patrons will return to Norfolk's Little Creek branch library.

Some will take the moral high ground and apologize. "Uhhh. Sorry about that."

Some will own their mistake. "Yeah. There's a fine on the account. I know this is late."

Some - and this is the most popular route, the one of least resistance - won't say anything at all.

"They drop it and run," Greene said.

Yes. The wimps deposit in the overnight drop box their late and long-overdue John Grisham novels - checked out during the Clinton administration, yellowed by sunlight, years ago buried in the toy chest and only recently rediscovered.

These are Fine Free Days, a once-a-decade promotion that allows the late and even the obscenely late to return their books to the sanctuary that is the Norfolk library system and to do it without cost, with a clear conscience and to be absolved of all their bookworm sins.

Blessed are those who return "The Kite Runner" and "A Visit From the Goon Squad" and "1861." All is forgiven, my child. Your account is clear.

It's not a new concept. Libraries across the country hold similar promotions.

Since the event started Sept. 16 in Norfolk, the prodigal books have been returning. In past fine-free periods, the library has gotten books last seen since the 1980s and books mailed from up and down the East Coast. And there have been Navy families who checked out a book, were transferred elsewhere, then reassigned to Norfolk years later and decided it was a good time to return the reading material.

Perhaps it's a bit overzealous, but these Fine Free Days seem like the perfect time to examine the psychology of such delinquents.

It's an opportunity to examine how one bad decision - holding onto that Jodi Picoult book until you finally make it to the end - begets another, how the situation snowballs and, before anyone knows what's happened, you're the guy in Iowa who recently was sentenced to 10 days in jail for overdue book fines topping $500.

Greene, the Little Creek branch manager, would rather talk about what she's hoping to find in her collection bins before the grace period ends Friday.

She'd like to see the safe return of any DVD collection that features a complete season of a popular television series. She knows they take awhile to watch, but she'd like you to bring them back.

She'd like the GED study guides, too. They're always in high demand.

Not to be picky, but any book that has a movie tie-in would be greatly appreciated. How long has that copy of Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" been on the nightstand anyway?

And, finally, if you have finished an overdue copy of "The Help," it would be great if you could bring that back, too. Almost 90 people are on the waiting list for the city's 35 copies.

Greene has less to say about the people committing these offenses. In fact, she's nearly indifferent to the reasons for holding on to the material.

She knows there is a breaking point for some people, when the crime feels overwhelming, the shame too great and the book, as lousy as it is, becomes part of their permanent home collection. They can't go back.

But the truth is librarians don't really care why you haven't brought the book back.

"We don't need to hear excuses or wave our finger at anyone," said Sean Bilby, the library's collection development and circulation coordinator.

The librarians just want the books back. With tight budgets, they don't want to have to spend money on a replacement copy.

The fine free Days work because the books and videos that people return are worth far more to the library than the fines people owe on them.

So for the next few days, the librarians aren't waiting to judge.

They don't care if you've had that copy of Stephenie Meyer's "New Moon" for nine months.

There's nothing to be ashamed of.

Unless you lie and say it was for your daughter.

Mike Gruss, (757) 446-2277, mike.gruss@pilotonline.com, PilotOnline.com/gruss