Waking up today will be my first full day turning the page to chapter 40. It also happens to be Thanksgiving.
I am thankful for being able to live another year.
I am thankful for good food and drink whether it’s at a beautiful new restaurant or from my own kitchen.
I am thankful to be able to run a Turkey Trot this morning with my nuclear family, two teenagers and a husband before spending time with extended family to share in some turkey, stuffing, and cranberries (don’t forget dessert!)
I am thankful for authors, books, and being surrounded by the power of words.
Gift giving season is upon us, so what kinds of items would a book nerd in your life want? I’ll tell you the things I’ve been gifted and loved and the things that I’d love to own.
Canvas bags with pithy sayings like this gorgeous one.
Apparel that brings comfort to readers like these warm socks with a cool slogan.
Items that compliment your reading environment like these adorable coasters.
Jewelry like a bangle that says “I love books”.
For the book nerds with an extensive library that they often don’t like to lend out– they’ll add a reminder of just whose it is with a stamp or embosser. That’ll do the trick!
And book weights! That item has revolutionized my reading life.
Just like you buy the essentials to stock up when impending weather hits, so I stock up on long weekends and breaks when libraries are likely to be closed. I want to make sure I have enough reading material at the ready. Yes, I know that the digital world remains available, but it’s often so much better to hold a book in your hands.
Luckily in our high school library, we got a big shipment of books in, so we’ve created a few displays to highlight these books to stock up. Last Friday two girls came up to the desk to check out and asked how many they’re allowed to borrow at a time. I told them that four is usually a pretty good number but around long weekends and holidays we’ll let them take as many as they can carry. They chuckled and shouted loudly about how happy that made them. Adults do it, teens do it, and the adults for little children do it too.
Here in upstate New York, wintery weather is starting to arrive, so I’ll be sure to make sure my shelves are stocked.
Last year I was training for a 15K in the summer which would lead to running my first half marathon in the fall. Eight years ago I would have laughed at you if you told me I was going to be a runner. And seven years ago, I would have laughed (as I did my friends and colleagues) if you told me you listened to audiobooks while running. Because I was decidedly *not* a runner, I could only imagine getting pumped up to run with music.
Fast forward to last year’s training and I couldn’t imagine running WITHOUT an audiobook. I’m sure there were mornings where I ran farther because I didn’t want to stop reading. And even now, now that we’re also dog owners again, the daily walks also include audiobooks if I’m not walking with another family member in addition to any running I do. Here are a few of the memorable audiobook runs and walks.
This was my first ever audiobook run. You can never go wrong with Steve Sheinkin’s nonfiction.
My first Colleen Hoover book was this audiobook while running. Spicy!
Nugent’s Little Cruelties was so complicated, deliciously messy, and screwed up (in all the best ways) that I remember my eyes bugging out a little while I was running. What was I listening to?!?!
Beautiful storytelling and a vivid setting combined to immerse me in a mystery that absolutely took me to another time and place. I definitely ran longer than I had planned to keep reading.
This poetry collection includes nature sounds while the the multiple narrators share the poetry and while you’re actually walking in nature, it was captivating.
When books are memoirs, you need to have an audiobook narrated by the author. This one was not only perfectly executed as an audiobook, but it also spoke to me on a deeper level that I ended up buying the book to own in addition to listening to it a second time.
Our library system ran an expedition, the second iteration in a handful of years to promote all of the thirty-six libraries in the system. After the expedition finished, they did a Library Love event to bring the libraries back together, give out some awards, provide recognition for the staff who put the activity together, and allow fellow library lovers a chance to have fun and connect.
At the event, the staff had a station where you could pose with the dollar amount you saved by borrowing from the library using a standard dollar amount per book, but that didn’t include your digital borrowing.
I know I read a lot of books, so to know that I have the public library, in addition to my job as a school librarian, saves me quite a lot of money. In this photo from September, my borrowing totaled over $42,000. That’s a car. It’s a salary. It’s a lot of groceries (well not as much anymore).
I know there are libraries whose digital borrowing receipts include “you saved X dollars by borrowing these items”, which I also love.
We should continue to celebrate what public libraries do from hosting events and community gatherings, to still the thing as old as time– lending books. Thank you to people like Benjamin Franklin and Andrew Carnegie, all the librarians and library staff, and communities that support their libraries!
A hiccup in putting in our first big book order of the year put us about a week behind. I’ve had a student checking almost daily for the shipment to arrive after I confirmed that the book she’s waiting for is in the stacks of boxes that will arrive.
No cooler words have been spoken by a character in fantasy, right? Cool like the millions of copies of the Inheritance Cycle series sold by Christopher Paolini and the many more now that Murtagh is out in the world. Cool to be the kid who started writing Eragon at fifteen because he was bored and wanted a challenge. Cool like the dozen high school students of mine who spent a dinner with him, getting signed copies of his books, and generally having a good time before his presentation through the New York State Writers Institute and The Book House. Cool like the student who had their cheek signed by him. Cool like the hundreds of people that showed up to share their express gratitude that he wrote the books because they saved them in some way whether it was the dragons or lines like “Die puny human.”
Student comes in holding Shiloh and asking if we have books that are similar. A short walk to the bookshelves and I had a basic understanding of why she liked the book and a fairly clear idea of the kind of reader she is.
A quick catalog search showed me that two books that automatically came to mind wouldn’t work because she wanted a physical book and we only had digital versions of the others.
We proceeded to walk the shelves where I’d pull a book up from the shelf, set it on top, talk about it for a minute, and then continue to walk again, repeating the process and reading her facial expressions. I usually get to a point where I stop and ask them if they want me to continue or if they’ve had enough. Depending on their answer, I’ll keep shelf talking or I’ll tell them that I’ll leave them alone to choose and to bring whatever they want to take up to the desk to check out.
Do I secretly celebrate when they bring something up to the desk? Of course. Do I do a virtual backflip if it’s one of the ones that I recommended? Heck yes. Did she? Totally.
And it’s THE reason I love being a school librarian. I do it for the shelf talking.
Last year a teacher approached us to collaborate on a new school activity- an Open Mic Night where kids could come stand in front of an audience in a coffee shop-like atmosphere and perform. I said absolutely, sign me up. It was another opportunity for students to participate in an activity that celebrates creativity and uses our beautiful new library as the backdrop.
Because the teacher is a performer himself, he led the charge to sign students up and emceed the night, which included fantastically goofy segues. I would set the scene with snacks and hot drinks, atmospheric decorations like glowing tea lights, and advertise the heck out of it.
Last year’s Red & Black Open Mic Night
Last year we hosted several and we’re on track to do three this year. Wednesday night was the first and as is with last year’s, I am awed by their capacity to perform. This session included all singing and a few instruments, but we have seen spoken word and poetry. One student performed an original song and a duet spun the fast-moving Hamilton track, “The Schuyler Sisters” to finish out the night and blow our minds. Whether they were doing karaoke or embodying Elvis, it’s all just words… words in different ways and whether we’re reading words on a page as a book or listening to a song, it’s worth thinking about all of the innovative ways words can be arranged and affect us.
