We all know how steep the cost of living in Toronto is, so any hack to save a little cash here and there can prove wildly helpful, including one often-overlooked tip: simply reaping the benefits of your local public library.

Instead of spending $25+ to purchase your next read, you can check out any book for free from a Toronto Public Library (TPL) branch, along with enjoying the other perks of a library card, which range from quiet study space and free-of-charge classes to other types of programming and events, computer and printing services, and more.

It’s a savvy way to cut back on spending, especially for avid readers, courtesy of the city’s taxpaying citizens. But some TPL frequenters have flagged a major caveat: that wait times for certain books have grown excessively long.

A local user shared on Reddit this week that Bill Bryson’s best-selling 2003 audiobook, A Short History of Nearly Everything, had a whopping 2,042 people on its waitlist to check out from TPL when they attempted to borrow the title.

Though they stated that they love the TPL and the resources it provides, as well as the Libby ebook and audiobook app that the library uses, they have been waiting to get their hands (or ears, rather) on this particular title for an unfathomable six years. 

“Three years to go, I guess?” they joked.

2,042 people are waiting for the same copy at Toronto Public Library

byu/catladynina intoronto

Although the library’s limited audiobook stock may not be the most riveting topic you’ll find on the Toronto subreddit, the post drew hundreds of upvotes and comments, with some sharing similar wait times for this and other titles.

“Earlier this year, I finally got my copy of In A Sunburned Country [by Bill Bryson] after going on the list in December of 2019,” one person wrote. “Unfortunately, I was reading something else at the time and I let my hold lapse. See you in 2030.”

Another compared these wait times to trying to secure covered Toronto Blue Jays playoff tickets.

The TPL itself chimed in to explain the difficult and expensive process of getting the licensing rights for some books, especially when it comes to virtual copies.

“For physical items, we have a 6 holds/1 copy target, but we have to give up on that for popular ebooks and audiobooks,” the official Reddit account for the institution said.

They gave the example of Michelle Obama’s Becoming, for which, to meet the 6/1 target, the TPL “would have had to spend $43K on copies of the ebook and $54K on the audiobook,” along with “having to do it all over again in a few years since publishers require libraries to repurchase some digital titles after a certain amount of time/usage.”

A representative further stated to blogTO that it’s very uncommon for books to have this many holds at the TPL.

“For both these titles, we can’t meet the demand because the title is no longer available for us to license,” they said over email.

In the last few years, other residents have taken to social media to ask about what they consider to be longer wait times for holds than they’re used to. In those conversations, one suggestion to bypass the lineup was to check individual branches for a “Best Bets” copy, which are, per the TPL website, special “copies of popular, high-demand adult fiction and nonfiction books. They are available for browsing in library branches. You can’t place holds on them.”