Usually this feature is about items I find in books from my personal collection. This one, however, was discovered in a library book in the Chicago Public Library (CPL). I thought it was so bizarre I had to share it.
For those of you unfamiliar with the patron who supposedly too out this book here is a reminder from the omniscient source of all internet knowledge —Wikipedia. I'm simply cutting and pasting it with one bit of editing for clarification:
"Lutsenko is a former Minister of Internal Affairs [of the Ukraine]. He occupied this post in the two cabinets of Yulia Tymoshenko and in cabinets of Yuriy Yekhanurov, and Viktor Yanukovych. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is the Ukrainian police authority, and Lutsenko became the first civilian minister in February 2005."
Lutsenko was also imprisoned for abuse of powers. Many nations objected to this calling it wrongful imprisonment and as one more sign of the actual abuse of power by Ukrainian Prime Minister Yanukovych. You can read about it all for yourself on various websites using the names of the men as search terms. Knock yourself out.
Anyway, made me laugh to think some oddball in Chicago thought it funny to make it appear that Lutsenko was a fan of obscure murder mysteries just as all of us are. The addition of wishing future readers enjoyment of the book was doubly amusing. The significance of the date eludes me. Any guesses?
For the record, I didn't enjoy the book.. I stopped after 25 pages and returned it to the library. It put me to sleep. Literally. I was probably just exhausted that evening from my day job which is draining me on a daily basis these days.
More on Roy Fuller, the author of the book Lutsenko supposedly took out and read, and his side career as a mystery writer next week.
Well, it could not have been the real Yuriy Lutsenko who borrowed this book since he was born after 4/9/62 !
ReplyDeleteObviously the whole thing is a joke. Why would the date signify a birthday? It’s supposed to be the day the book was borrowed.
DeleteI know very well that 4/9/62 is the date of borrowing the book. But since the person referred by you was born in 1964, it couldn't have been him.
DeleteI'm not a handwriting expert, of course, but the date/name and message appear to be written by two different persons. Just compare the U's and K's. Was the book actually taken out in 1962 by this "Yuriy Letsenko," because, if it was, the message was definitely written by someone else. I'm pretty sure it was very uncommon to use a :) in a written note before the 2000s.
ReplyDeleteSo, perhaps, the name can easily be explained as there being more than one dog named Spot.
The book was first published under the more appropriate title "Fantasy and Fugue".
ReplyDelete