haresfur wrote: 
That's pretty funny. I do remember just opening books at random and seeing who had checked them out.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
There's a story about the start of the Manhattan project where one of the physicists at the University of Chicago came home and told his wife a vague story about them having to move to Tennessee for a while. She went to the library and checked out a book on the State and saw that the last few people to check it out were wives of physicists. Good thing the Japanese weren't watching.

 bokey wrote: 
For your information it wasn't Little Billy the Quadriplegic Orphan at all! I was over at a friend's house and there it was by the front door so he'd remember to take it back to the library. Small towns. Remember when you could look at the little card and find out who else had checked out a book? Now you have to go door to door and just ask them.

 bokey wrote: 
God if I only had a nickel...

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
It was Little Billy the quadriplegic orphans last wish to read that book.When he placed the hold online,the doctors and nurses all broke out in tears over his obvious joy about finding the book of his dreams.Don't worry about it though,he passed away the day before you returned it.Some say from a broken heart.His last words were "FU SFW".

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
I was only following n4ku's sage advice.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
Miscreant! 

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
If you want to read a modern book with a similar but much longer time span, the new Neal Stephenson book Seveneves is totally science-geeky but looks like it deals with some similar concepts. And a lot more. I checked it out from the library and only had to renew it once. Okay I didn't renew it since someone else had put a hold on it; I just kept it an extra week and will have to pay some ungodly fine. 85¢ maybe.

 Proclivities wrote: 
That's it. Thanks!

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
Is it Time Of The Great Freeze?  I remember seeing the book around in the '70s; I never read it but some friends of mine probably did.

 Red_Dragon wrote:

 
you should ask maryt

she always helped me remember Sci Fi

When I was a lad of about ten, I read a science-fiction book. The story was about a future earth in the throes of an ice-age. The surviving humans had built cities below the ice and isolated themselves from one another. A group of dissidents in one of the cities, operating illegal communication equipment made contact with another city. When they were discovered, the city's leaders banished them to the surface. They were given vehicles designed for traversing the ice, and a limited quantity of supplies. Don't recall how things turned out for them.

For the life of me, I cannot recall the author or title of this book. Does it sound familiar to anyone? 

 Antigone wrote: 
Same diff...

 Antigone wrote: 
Well it is for the illiterate. 

 RichardPrins wrote: 
Guy's last name was Montag, not Monday!

 RichardPrins wrote: 
What, no lengthy extract so I don't have to read the whole thing? 

 RichardPrins wrote: 
Thank you for providing this helpful information.  This will prove invaluable to the hundreds of millions of adults who have not read a book since High School. Evidently they get their news from ESPN and their literature from billboards.

Mary Beard: humour in ancient Rome was a matter of life and death