Cavendish Library Blog

Every year the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library has two Scholastic Book Fairs, one in the spring and one in the fall. Right now we are in the midst of the fall fair.  The theme is “Bookfair Safari”.  I know that book fairs can have a very bad reputation for being full of “junk”. Some of that is warranted and some of it isn’t.  Looking at my fair I can say that it is about 80% books and 20% junk. We don’t put all of the junk out.  Some of it, especially software, I don’t put out.  It’s too expensive and the same titles can usually be purchased for less at K-Mart.  Of the junk I do put out, about half of it is weird pencils and pens and the other half is, well, junk.  I know that other libraries and other schools refuse to put anything besides books on their fair, and I’m glad that works for them, but it doesn’t for us.  Here’s the reason why.  The cheapest book is $2.00.  That particular title is a “Barbie” book.  There are a few others around that price, but they are all left over from past years’ sales, are dated and look it.  The cheapest new books are $4.00.  Meanwhile pencils are $.45.  I have children who come in with $1.13 in pennies (really!) who want to buy something and participate in the fair and I am thrilled there is something they can purchase.  I would rather it be a book, but there is nothing on the fair for that price.

            Not only that, for each dollar someone spends we get money for books.  And that’s what we spend it on: books for the children’s section of the library, putting books into the hands of children, whether by buying them themselves or by having those books available for check out in the library.

            The bookfair is a lot of work.  It has to be stored when it gets here, be set up and taken down.  I have a small army of volunteers who bravely sling boxes helping me to set up and take down.  We decorate, put up posters, run daily contests and collect donations for patrons who need help purchasing books and worthy causes.  I always have to worry about keeping the shelves stocked, theft (thankfully almost non-existent) things taken out of their packaging (all too often) and parents who aren’t happy with the books their children have selected (I’m OK with exchanges as long as they are in the same condition as when they were purchased). Not to mention paperwork! Oy!  The less said about that the better.  I’m always excited when it begins and relieved when it is over.

            All that complaining aside, why do I bother?  That’s easy.  The kids love it and we get books for the children’s section of the library.  In addition, the principal (who has a wonderful sense of humor) will dress up as various related things, most memorably Captain Underpants.  The photo opportunities alone make this worthwhile.….Almost…..Ask me again in the New Year. I should be recovered by then.

My husband and I of fourteen years agree to disagree on a lot of things.  In fact when we were first together, I wrote a poem about it.  Naturally since that poem was in the first flush of love, it’s not something I really want other people to read.  Probably the most frequent thing we disagree on is books.  Mainly that I always want to buy more and that he thinks I have too many.

When I buy a book, the chances are about 80% that after I read it, it will end up in the guest room of the house, where I have three big book cases, double and triple stacked full of books.  Naturally I have them sorted by author and genre….If I didn’t, what kind of a librarian would I be?  Frequently, I will be in the “mood” for a specific book and will go digging through my stash and pull out a book or two.  He will look over at me with that slightly sneering look on his face and ask “Are you going to read that again?”

I generally purse my lips at him and say “Yes”.  He doesn’t understand why I need to read a book more than once, and I don’t understand how he can read a book only one time then never look at it again.  Not that he’s much of a reader, but I’m working on that.  That’s usually when we have a discussion about watching television re-runs and how many times he has seen the same John Wayne movies, especially “The Green Berets” the less said about that movie the better.

There are many different reasons to reread a book.  Here is my list:

1) A sequel or a book in the same series has come out and you want to refresh your memory and get the details of the last book firmly in your mind.  This is especially good with a book like “Harry Potter”.

2) You’ve just read a book by an author or in a series where there was a revelation that you want to see if you could have told it was coming.  This is especially good with a book like “Harry Potter”.

3) You read a book by the same author which is either much better or much worse that anything else by him or her that you might have read and want to read another book to see if maybe you misjudged the prior book.  It does happen.

4) You liked it.  You really liked it.

Reading a book is a much more personal experience than watching a television show or a movie.  When you read a book, you control the speed and the input….like in The Outer Limits : “If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity.”  I find when I read a really good book, like Stephen King’s “Carrie” I can pick up different nuances that I missed in the past. There is a greater depth of subtlety in a book that is different from the “We’re going to club you in the head with it” thrust of modern television. 

That is not to say that all books are good and all television is bad.  I have read my share of bad books and watched my share of good television.  I have watched the same episodes of television series before, to my great enjoyment.  The episode of Frasier where Niles and Frasier try to open a restaurant together still makes me laugh until I cry.  My point is rereading books is a good practice.  Every so often I will stumble across something on the shelves in the library that I read once several years ago, flip it open and find myself enjoying it immensely (Earth Abides by George Stewart) .  Then again, I will do the same thing, read for about a minute and wonder what I ever saw in the book in the first place.

A good book is a like a mirror to the reader.  Our taste in books reflects who we are as a person when we connect with it.

My husband making that face

When a reader finds himself or herself in a book rereading is a wonderful exercise in self realization.   Even when the book doesn’t live up to our memories we can look at it and think of how we once loved it and realize how far we have come.