Ms. Lois has written to let us know about the Adult Summer Reading Program that starts down at the one and only Pomona Public Library on June 22.
Not only am I big fan of our municipal library -- no suffering with the LA County System for us! -- but I have a giant soft spot for summer reading programs. In fact, in the summer of fourth grade, back in Murrville, Tennessee, I started keeping a list of all the books I read, and while everyone else stopped when school started in the fall, I just kept on. I still write down every book I read in an ancient three-subject spiral notebook, the cover of which says "79¢" and bears my childhood address in my 7th- or 8th-grade handwriting. I'm up to 4,972 as of today -- a much more meaningful statistic than the car's odometer to my way of thinking.
Not that the Adult Summer Reading Program is that kind of reading program, but I commend it to your attention nonetheless. Meg-Bob sez check it out!
13 comments:
I've been logging the books I've read since 1991 but regret not doing so back in childhood. I think that's awesome you not only started so young but have kept at it. What a neat link to your past. You should have a party (at Magic Door?) when you hit 5,000 books.
It is pretty darned handy to be able to go back and find the details for books you've forgotten the title of, so that you can recommend them to your half-pint friends.
It's also trippy to watch the handwriting change. It went through some bizarre stages between about 1972 and 1982.
Meg,
You don't know how much I love to hear stories like yours. I hope many people have fond memories of their past Summer Reading Programs!
Actually, Ms. Lois, Dave's comment gave me the idea of giving my young friends blank books for presents, with a card made from a snapshot of my own book notebook. Not that every kiddo would be into it, but what a treasure it is to have.
I love to throw out ideas that won't require any follow-up effort on my part, so what about a "David Allen Book of the Month" club at the library?
Spend Twelve Months with DA!
Finish the day with DA!
Don't go to bed without DA!
In all seriousness, it might be an interesting way to invigorate adults to read. Do we really need Oprah, when we already have David Allen.
I'm actually quite serious. Btw, I clicked to fast and forgot the question mark on that last sentence.
I've always envied readers who keep track of books they've read, but have never started one of my own. Meg-what is the first book on your list, if you don't mind sharing?
During my time at the PPL, my fellow assistants and I often discussed our favorite and least-favorite books. Well, in between shaking down the citizenry for overdue fines and hold fees, that is.
We never came up with the idea on our own to form some kind of reading group, but looking back, I kind of wish we had.
So while I can't do anything about it now, and would not be able to participate in any newly formed groups, I'd like to throw in my .02 from afar and say that I think a reading club at the PPL would be a grand idea.
p.s., Hi, Lois!
Oops, I meant to say "IS" a grand idea.
As in, to express my excitement that there is now an adult reading program at the PPL.
I blame low blood sugar for this error. My apologies
omg! Irene! I've seen you post here before and had no idea I knew you! How the heck are you?
I agree with Ed. Having a David Allen book of the month club would be awesome!
Meg, great idea to give your young friends blank books, especially if they know how much yours means to you.
Thanks for the press!
Irene, at the risk of making you think less of me: The first entry is the novelization of the movie *Charly*. Yes, I read *Flowers for Algernon* not long after, but the novelization preceded the novel.
I was one of those kids who read everything she could get her hands on. My tastes (if you could call them that) ran from classic children's literature to classic adult literature to my grandmother's soft-porn romances.
Ed, I'm all in favor of the Dave Allen book club -- let's do it. Get in bed with Dave Allen!
Meg, I love the gift idea of a blank notebook, a card made of a scan of a page from your own book, and maybe even one of the books you read when you were the age of your half-pint friend. Very cool.
I'll get in bed with DA, assuming we can then all get together at the end of the month to discuss our experiences.
Lois; post-PPL life has been good! I hope all is well over there.
Meg; at the risk of You thinking less of Me, I think the first novel I ever read was The Shining. I was seven years old and, looking back, it may well explain a lot about me.
Now the bad news about the library is starting July 7 to September 12, the library is closed on Mondays and is open from 10-6 on Tuesday to Thursday and 11:30-5:30 on Friday and Saturday. Good for story time, but bad for just about everything else. Ever since the library fixed the air conditioner in the late 90's, it has been "cool" enough climatically speaking to function as a de facto cooling center. Of course, anyone who lives here knows it can still be triple digits at 7 or even 8 in the evening. With the library and community centers closing at 5 or 6, there are that much fewer places for people who don't have or can't afford the air conditioning to cool down. Now, i can just drive over to the Ontario library, which is brand spanking new, has a cafe, and fast Internet (but a surprisingly poor collection of actual books, especially in the topics that I'm interested in, and they only let you check them out for two weeks at a time). But it will be a detriment to those Pomona residents trying to beat the heat, and finding no place within the city where they can do so, at least without being obligated to buy something.
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