Libraries!

It's time for Library Appreciation! Thanks so much to Shelli for organizing this blog event :)

When NIGHTSHADE is released this fall, I'll have fingers and toes crossed that lots of readers are able to access it through their local libraries.
My own reading life developed under the wing of amazing, kind, intelligent librarians at the Vaughn Public Library in Ashland, Wisconsin. I have no doubt the my success as a writer is greatly indebted to the hours spent curled up among the stacks of this beautiful 19th century building.
The Vaughn Library was like a second home to me. Nearly all of my books came from the library, from picture books, to young readers, to YA and then to adult (though of course YA never went away!) I have fond memories of summer reading programs, story hour with Grandma Goose, and always knowing where my favorite books would be shelved.

My first job was at the Vaughn Library. I was a library "page" from the summer after my sophomore year of high school until I graduated.

The library always felt like a second home to me. When I do a reading there this fall it will be one of the happiest moments of my life.

Thanks to the Vaughn Public Library and to librarians everywhere for bringing the gift of reading to so many!!!

How have libraries shaped your love of books and reading?

Ode to Librar(ies, ians)

I'm enjoying reading various ALA roundups. Descriptions of the conference buoyed my spirits not only because the ALA had record attendance, despite the economic slump, but also because I love seeing crowds of folks gathered to celebrate books.

Libraries have a special place in my heart. When I was very young the Vaughn Public Library in Ashland, WI functioned as my de facto babysitter. The library was across the street from my dad's office and I curled up in the stacks surrounded by books often enough that all the librarians knew me by name.

That familiarity helped a great deal when it was time to get my first job. The summer before my sophomore year in high school I applied to work, where else, but at the library! I worked amid those stacks I loved so well, full-time in the summers and part-time during the school year, for the next three years.

When I went to college my work study jobs were always at the library. I love the way libraries smell and though I am adjusting I still have a strange reaction to seeing computers instead of a Dewey decimal card catalog when I visit my local library. Libraries make and sustain readers, librarians are astounding founts of knowledge and exceptional defenders of civil rights.

Huzzah steadfast librarians, thank you for all you do every day!!
Getting back to that greatest of all librarian gatherings, my favorite rundown of the ALA thus far comes from the fabulous Maggie Stiefvater, whose upcoming book Shiver was well-feted at the conference (I can't wait to read it! And its release date happens to be my birthday...ahem).

Too much press of late has been disheartening about the "end of publishing" and how hard it is for new writers to break into the industry. While all this may be true, it only takes a few images from the ALA to remember how exciting a good book really is and that reading is here to stay.