Oh, don’t let that stop you! While every library system is different, just about all of them let you borrow up to 3 weeks. As long as the book doesn’t have a list of people who placed it “on hold”, you can renew it for another 3 weeks, and some libraries will let you renew again for another 3 weeks. That’s a total of 9 weeks. On occasion, my local public library has even let me renew a book again for 3 weeks, making a total of 12 weeks. That should take the stress out of using the library - and you can renew online, you don’t need to go in personally, making it so easy and convenient to have a book as long as you need it.

Don’t forget ebooks at the library. My library lets you borrow them for 3 weeks with an option for renewal. There are no late fees, because even if you don’t return it yourself, it will disappear off your kindle on the last day of the loan the next time you turn on the Kindle’s Wi-Fi. Keeping your Kindle’s Wi-Fi off, will give you extra days with the book if you need them. And again, you can peruse the ebooks available, send it to your Amazon account, and from Amazon, download it to your Kindle - all from the comfort of your home.

My theory is, if it’s a book that hasn’t been checked out in months or even years, they’re more apt to let you renew it as long as you need to since no one else is showing any interest in reading it. I don’t know if that’s true or not, it’s just a theory I have, but it sounds logical - while I have been able to renew some books 3 times, I haven’t been able to renew every book I’ve tried to renew that extra time, but I was able to renew most of the ones I wanted to renew. I haven’t done it often because realistically, I read, on average, a book every 8-10 days, but on occasion, life happens and I’m unable to find or make/take time to read, in which case I will use the multiple renewals if I need them.

Another option, if you have a Kindle, is Kindle Unlimited. It’s like a library that you pay for. You can pay monthly, semiannually, or annually. KU allows you to borrow up to 10 books at a time with absolutely no set return date. None whatsoever! I have books I borrowed through KU a year ago, and they’re still on my kindle, still listed In my Amazon account, with absolutely no pressure from Amazon looking for me to return. If you have 10 books, you can keep them as long as you want, you just can’t borrow any more until you return one.

That should help ease the stress, and if you’re buying books and spending at least $10/month or more, KU is a less expensive alternative @ $9.98/month. If paperbacks are at least $10 if you go to a retail bookstore and you only buy one a month, you’re way ahead with KU. Good luck!