Division of Libraries' Blog

Sometimes we need a nudge. Something to make us stretch out and wake up. My nudge came last weekend when I accepted the Fifth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge on the MotherReader blog. Please know that this was a personal challenge; an effort to generate some intellectual movement…summer is not my most creative time. I did not participate in the (amazing) community throughout. Maybe next year.

The results?   *My Smithsonian, National Geographic, Time, Country, Food Network magazines are up-to-date. The back issue piles had ranged from 2 to 6 months. *I am deep into a re-read of The Alienist by Caleb Carr. *The two page list of blogs to visit in my “spare time” is no more. I dropped in, nosed around and either added them to my feed or kicked ‘em to the curb. Book Patrol is a keeper.

Obviously, I did not spend the entire 48 hours reading; but the Challenge helped me make it The Point of the weekend. Reading was the task, duty, errand of the day…I had to fit bills, groceries, laundry around it. And it was just a delight. Your Challenges? Nudges?

Oh remember that several of the magazines mentioned are available to you via your library card and databases!

Confession time. I do not read every book that I check out of the library or buy at the bookstore. Yes, there are cases where the title and I just don’t match up…the voice of the character or the format of the writing puts me off for some reason. But more often than not, I wind up returning/donating unread books to the library because I have gone into a sort of feeding frenzy. [What?] When serendipity steps in and I am faced with shelves and shelves of new releases or piles and piles of must-have bargain buys, it’s a feeding frenzy. I can walk out with two full bookbags.

I do feel badly though; I picture those titles on a kind of Island of Unread Books. To give them another chance to be enjoyed, my most recent returns include The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food & Friendship, Game Change: Obama & the Clintons, McCain & Palin and the Race of a Lifetime and Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard. Won’t you give them a try? And, why not share a few of your Island dwellers with us here?

One last thing…a special thank you for the recommendation to request a copy of Defend the Valley: A Shenandoah Family in the Civil War by Margaretta Barton Colt. To walk through those years with this family via their journals and letters made the unique, convoluted tragedy of civil war truly visible…and made clear the resilience of the human spirit. My learning is richer for the read. I appreciate it.