Library Idea of the Week
November 16, 2004
Cathy Belben, Librarian, Burlington-Edison High School

Ten Reasons to Recommend Books to Your Friends and Colleagues

1. Reading begets thinking, discussion and community. The more adults in my “personal village” who are reading, the more ideas we can share or debate.
2. Reading begets reading. When my adult acquaintances read and enjoy books, they share them with their children, their students, their nieces and nephews, and the children in their lives. More readers=more thinkers. More thinkers=better world.
3. You can create a community of people who see you as their “go to” person for books—you become the center of a reading community, a source of inspiration and personal growth; you change the world….one book at a time.
4. When you tell people about books, they tell you about books. You can learn from them, too, and get good ideas about what to read next.
5. You can barter—I buy or share books with friends who have talents I don’t have, such as handling a skillsaw.
6. Reading creates a calmer, slower paced, and ultimately more peaceful world. Reading turns down the volume—people pause and relax when they read. I like being a part of that peacefulness and calm.
7. Reading makes people smarter. The more smart people you surround yourself with, the better (unless they’re the annoying, know-it-all kind of smart people).
8. Reading and books make people happy. A great way to cheer a sad friend or help someone through a hard time is to share entertaining or thoughtful books with people who need more happiness in their lives.
9. Reading makes people healthier—the calming effect of all books, and the content of health and nutrition books.  The healthier our friends are, the longer they’ll last. 
10. Sharing books with friends—with everyone—is our personal mission, a fulfillment of who we are as literate people who celebrate everyday the ability and freedom to read. When we share our books, we share our lives…we share the celebration.

 

Book of the Week
How to Be Lost by Amanda Eyre Ward © 2004.  (Fiction)

The Winters family, which is already dysfunctional, suffers even more when the youngest daughter, five-year-old Ellie, disappears. Her two older sisters, Madeline and Caroline, each confront her loss differently, but ultimately, they grow apart as their parents’ marriage crumbles under the strain of too much alcohol and the loss of their child.

Twenty years after Ellie’s disappearance, a lawyer visits the two sisters and their mother, hoping they’ll sign papers saying Ellie is dead and help him prosecute a child killer. The family refuses, however, because Caroline and her mother both believe Ellie may still be alive. Caroline is even more convinced that her sister is out there, somewhere, when she sees a photo in a magazine that looks exactly the way her sister might look if she survived to adulthood. Caroline takes off for Montana, where the photo was taken, and seeks her sister among the runaways and purposely lost individuals who inhabit Missoula.

The story, which is told primarily from Caroline’s point of view, is a clear, unflinching, and often funny picture of what happens to individuals and family in the wake of great loss, and about the quest to fill in the missing gaps in the story of our lives. This story, which is, on the surface, about significant loss and its overwhelming impact on our lives, is also about discovery and healing. Amanda Eyre Ward does an amazing story of telling a commonly told tale with uncommon grace and impressive skill. She weaves a careful, gripping narrative, gradually revealing clues about the past into the present, and tying them together in an ending that feels real and satisfying.