The County Library discussion

Hello all,

In April we celebrate National Library Week. National Library Week is an annual celebration highlighting the valuable role libraries, librarians, and library workers play in transforming lives and strengthening our communities. This year's theme is "Drawn to the Library."

You can learn more about it here:
https://www.ala.org/conferencesevents...

You have two challenges this month.
1) Tell us what draws you to the library.
2) Read a book that's set in a library, or is about a librarian.

You could try these nonfiction titles, like the biography of a local librarian The World's Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette's, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family, or Librarian Tales: Funny, Strange, and Inspiring Dispatches from the Stacks, or Improbable Libraries: A Visual Journey to the World's Most Unusual Libraries.

Or you could checkout a fictional tale like Murder at the College Library, or What You Are Looking For Is in the Library, or The Midnight Library, or The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

You might enjoy these kids books Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library or Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians or Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia.

Good luck!

I recently listened to the first Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians. This challenge gives me a reason to get moving to book #2 to see what the evil librarians are up to!

I've been re-reading Alacatraz and am now on #4. I didn't remember enough to start book 6.

My TBR list included The Librarian Spy, which was available, so I will read this book for the April Challenge. A main character is a librarian posing as a librarian (?, but undercover as a spy), according to the blurb. Book completed 4/20

Em wrote: "My TBR list included The Librarian Spy, which was available, so I will read this book for the April Challenge. A main character is a librarian posing as a librarian (?, but undercover as a spy), ac..."

I have read this book, it is pretty good and I would definitely say it fits.

I read The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill.

4/4 for 2025

What draws me to the library?

Before I could read, my mom started reading to me. I memorized the Big Golden Book The Little Red Caboose by the time I was 3. Around age 5 or 6, she started reading The Hardy Boys. Not to be outdone, my dad read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings to me on Sunday nights.

We weren't a rich family, but we always had a couple of shelves of books, most of them passed down from when my parents were children. Other than the occasional school book fair purchase, we got our "new" books from the town library. I remember walking there a couple times per week on summer days. We lived only about a half mile from the library. I got my own library card at about the time I turned 8 or 9. It was printed on blue cardstock with rounded corners and had a metal plate with the card number clasped through two rectangular punched holes.

I think perhaps the first book I chose for myself apart from Dixon's Sibling Sleuths was a book called Operation Sherlock by Bruce Coville. It was part of a short four-book series called The A.I. Gang. Unfortunately, our small-town library was missing one of the books in the series, but I devoured the other three.

Once started, it never stopped. In elementary school I read C.S. Lewis's Narnia books, and it wasn't long before I discovered SciFi with Card's Ender's Game in middle school (6th grade). SciFi became a life-long addiction, and Azimov's Foundation series was a quick favorite. I didn't shy away from longer classics like Hugo's Les Miserables, either, which I read in the 10th grade.

I was able to convince my dad to take me into Reno where he worked, on summer days. He would drop me off at the (comparatively) massive library which housed tens of thousands of books. There I spent hour after hour browsing the stacks, searching the card catalogs, and reading book after book on pedestal platforms we called the toadstools.

Without belaboring, books continue to call to me. Since 2008, I've read 2663 books, and over a million pages. To be completely honest, a lot of those books are audio, but the stories are the same, either way.

So, what draws me to the library? It's the books.



P.S. The A.I. Gang novels are available in epub format here at SL County, but we're missing the same dang one! Thinking about this answer, it got me hyped to read those books, again. Thank goodness for inter-library loan which can finally deliver to me The Cutlass Clue!

Greg wrote: "I read
The Woman in the Library
by Sulari Gentill.

4/4 for 2025"

Super fast Greg. How was it?

Also, don't forget to write what draws you to the library? I just love books that I don't have to pay for! Also, ebooks are awesome. I love that part of the library never closes, perfect for when I have insomnia.

What draws me to the library? A paycheck!
But, aside from that, my dad was a high school librarian in Farmington, NM for 19 years. My mom was an elementary school librarian for about 7 years. My dad had a Master's degree and my mom didn't, but she was a fantastic paraprofessional. They then moved to Rexburg, ID, where my dad had his dream job of working at Ricks College (BYU-Idaho) and my mom worked at the high school.

They very much instilled a love of reading and appreciation for libraries in us kids. I'm the only one who pursued it and I love it! I love that we provide access to books, movies, music, e-content, 3D printing, vinyl cutters, pasta makers, telescopes, and more. I don't think I would have imagined all of this when I started my career in 1995 in New Mexico. Libraries are amazing!!

I have been drawn to the library my entire life. As soon as I was old enough I would ride my bike to the local branch and spend hours reading through the books in the fairy tale section. It was a place I could escape from the world. While I don't spend as much time physically in the library now, I continue to find escape in the books I get there.

I'm reading from the Glass Library series and I have book 6 new on my kindle app.
I get a lot of recommends for The Bad Ass Librarians of Timbuktu so that would be my second choice.

I am drawn to the library because my parents and grandparents took me to them, and I love to read and I do not need any more physical books. <3

Em wrote: "My TBR list included The Librarian Spy, which was available, so I will read this book for the April Challenge. A main character is a librarian posing as a librarian (?, but undercover as a spy), ac..."

I loved that book, especially the segments on the French resistance. It was amazing to put it together, and a previously unknown part of ww2 for me.

Elizabeth wrote: "Greg wrote: "I read
The Woman in the Library
by Sulari Gentill.

4/4 for 2025"

Super fast Greg. How was it?"

It was pretty good. Fun mystery. A little strange. Good choice for this month.

I'm going to read either "This Book is Overdue" or "The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians".

Reading has always been the one thing my entire family agreed upon. We would all sit in total silence with nothing the sound of pages being turned. And libraries have been the fun activity we did my entire life. Books are like oxygen... I need it to live.

I finished listening to “The Scrivener’s Bones,” the second in the Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians. It was a speedy listening experience, so maybe I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first, had I taken it a little slower, but I still really liked it and will definitely keep listening to the others in the series.

In this one, he made reference to a literary joke, and I didn’t understand that, so I’ll check out the print book and see if I can figure out what he’s talking about.

I am reading The Cat Who Saved the Library for this challenge. About 3/4 through right now.

Growing up, we regularly used our local library. Although my personal borrowing habits looks a little different than they did then, I still take advantage of library resources. Also I have been known to go there just to read or just wander the books even if I am not going to check out anything.

We are halfway through the month, so I thought I'd pop in, and remind people to let me know what they read that fits the challenge, and what draws them to the library, so they can be entered into the prize drawing!

Also, it's tax day!

Good luck!

Greg wrote: "I read
The Woman in the Library
by Sulari Gentill.

4/4 for 2025

What draws me to the library?

Before I could read, my mom started reading to me. I memorized the Big Golden Book The Little Re..."

Greg, that is a fantastic answer. I let our Acquisitions librarian who buys ebooks know about the gap in our collection. I don't know if she'll be able to fill it, but at least now she knows about it.

Thanks!

Finished The Cat Who Saved the Library today for the challenge.

I have been going to the library for as long as I can remember to check out books. My dad was an avid reader and took me all the time.

The book I read was The Month of Borrowed Dreams by Felicity Hayes-McCoy
A library and librarian are both in this book. However they are not a dominant part of the book as other books in this series are.

I finished reading Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson.

Here is what I wrote earlier about libraries in my life:

I have been drawn to the library my entire life. As soon as I was old enough I would ride my bike to the local branch and spend hours reading through the books in the fairy tale section. It was a place I could escape from the world. While I don't spend as much time physically in the library now, I continue to find escape in the books I get there.

I read "Horseback Librarians", about the WPA program in Appalachia.
I go to the library bc I can't afford to buy books, nor do I have space to store them. When I didn't have home internet, I used the library's. I print documents there, I've attended a wide variety of classes and group meetings at various libraries. When I travel, I always visit the local library wherever I am.

Only a couple of more days to post if you've read for the challenge.

I finished The Shattered Lens, book 4 of Alcatraz Vs the Evil Librarians.

Audrey is our prize drawing winner for April’s reading challenge for reading Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens by Brandon Sanderson.

Congratulations!