by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian
This year’s adult winter reading program has begun, with the
theme “Snow is Falling, Books are Calling.”
Our winter reading program is intended to encourage and reward reading
by adults during this cold and snowy time of year, like we do with the kids
during the summer.
Sign up between now and March to participate, and you’ll get
a red and black buffalo plaid-accented book bag while supplies last. You’ll also get a stack of book review forms
and a card for keeping track of the reviews you turn in.
When you turn in a short book review for something you read
between the day you sign up and the end of March, library staff will stamp your
card. When you’ve turned in three, you
can choose a small prize. When you’ve
turned in three more, you can choose another prize, plus we’ll put your completed
card into a drawing. The Friends of the
Litchfield Public Library sponsors three gift certificates to local businesses
for that drawing. The program can be
completed only one time per person.
The small prize choices this year include a mug, a book
light, a phone charger adapter for the car, a large candy bar, buffalo plaid
earrings, and a mouse pad. As always,
these are the choices while supplies last – although we won’t run out of candy
bars.
You can read anything you like for the program. It doesn’t have to be a library book or
something new. You choose what you’d like
to read. It can even be an ebook or
audiobook – that’s still a form of reading!
The book review forms are short, with no spot for a name, so
they’re anonymous once you turn them in.
We set them in a basket at the front desk, and you are welcome look
through them to find out which books our library users recommend or don’t
recommend.
So once you sign up, what should you read? I have a list of the most popular books in
Pioneerland Library System last year, which is almost like a recommendation
from the thousands of people who use the libraries in our region. The most popular book of the year was “Where
the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens. That
novel about a girl abandoned to grow up alone in the marshlands of North
Carolina was published in August 2018 and is still in high demand in our
library system and around the country.
The other top adult novels of the year were “Wolf Pack” by
C.J. Box, “Neon Prey” by John Sandford, “The 18th Abduction” by
James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, “The Great Alone” by Kristin Hannah, “Every
Breath” by Nicholas Sparks, “Someone Knows” by Lisa Scottoline, “Long Road to
Mercy” by David Baldacci, “Holy Ghost” by John Sandford, and “The Boy” by Tami
Hoag.
The adult nonfiction books with the most checkouts in
Pioneerland in 2019 were “Becoming” by Michelle Obama, “Educated” by Tara
Westover, “Girl, Wash Your Face” by Rachel Hollis, “Girl, Stop Apologizing” by
Rachel Hollis, “Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann, “Hillbilly Elegy”
by J.D. Vance, “Love Thy Neighbor” by Ayaz Virji, “The Pioneers” by David
McCullough, “A Woman of No Importance” by Sonia Purnell, and “The Library Book”
by Susan Orlean.
There’s no risk to signing up for the winter reading program. We won’t call you to see if you’ve finished
your books yet. Why not challenge
yourself to a goal of reading a few books this winter? Reading books can help you be more creative,
focused, and empathetic. And in case
you’ve forgotten, which many of us do when life gets busy, reading can be
fun. Like the winter reading program
slogan says, books are calling to you!
