What Are You Doing Between the Covers?

Photographers do it in the dark.  Dancers do it to music. Engineers do it with precision. Teachers do it repeatedly. Scientists do it experimentally. English majors do it flawlessly.  Cooks do it with relish.

The entendre-filled profession jokes that I remember being hugely popular on t-shirts about eight to ten years ago are haunting me as we get ready for the Adult Summer Reading Program here at Neill Public Library.  This year’s adult theme, “Between the Covers,” naturally lends itself to easily-misconstrued statements: Librarians like what’s Between the Covers!  Get Between the Covers with us at book club!  Go Between the Covers with famous authors!  What will get you Between the Covers this summer?

But there is definitely some truth to these tongue-in-cheek invitations.  We like what’s Between the Covers of our books.  Don’t judge a book by its cover; get inside it.  Like many, I wrap up my days with a few minutes of reading, yes, in bed, with my latest library find.  And if you’re looking to get between the covers in other ways, maybe with another person, well, let’s just say we’ve got books on that, too.  Plenty of characters from popular books are getting Between the Covers with each other.  I was talking about cross-over novels, by the way.  And if you like books where characters really do get Between the Covers a la Fifty Shades of Gray or Eloisa James, yep, we’ve got those.

So, do you want to get Between the Covers this summer?  Librarians have set up a sort of match-making service for you with our new What’s Your Next Read? program.  Like everything about Adult Summer Reading, it’s simple: come in any time we’re open, June 1-7.  Fill out a What’s Your Next Read? slip; you’ll be asked to give us your contact information and some brief information about five books.  You could list your top five favorite books of all time, your bottom five most-loathed books of all time, or simply the last five books you read.  If you can specify what you liked or disliked about those books (the characters, the action, the setting, the writing style, something else, or more), all the better.

Drop your slip in the box and librarians will get back to you with a title that fits your preferences and might just turn out to be your new favorite.  Fiction, Nonfiction, Audiobooks; romance, history, hen-lit, biography; we’ll work with any genre or format.  

Similar programs have been run at many public libraries, including Seattle Public Library, where it’s an ongoing, year-round program and patrons submit requests online.  While this is a trial program here at NPL, your Reference Librarians are always available to help you find new titles; we just typically use a less-structured format and call it “Reader’s Advisory,” a one-on-one reader’s interview at the reference desk.

Get on down to the library for some personalized book recommendations, and get Between the Covers!  The Adult Summer Reading Program started June 1^st and goes straight on through to July 31^st.  Stop by or call any time the library is open to get more information from your Information Librarians about how to win books, the Nook Tablet, and other cool prizes.  Summer Reading Program for kids and teens starts June 12^th!  

by Sarah Morrison, Adult Services Librarian

published 6-2-12 in Moscow-Pullman Daily News