9 more days…

… until we kick off the Winter Read-a-Thon!

What is the Winter Read-a-Thon, you ask?  The Winter Read-a-Thon is like a walk-a-thon, but instead of walking on one day in the summer, you raise money for the collections at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh by reading as much as you can for six weeks of winter! Register in person or drop off your online registration confirmation and $5 registration fee, and get your pledge packet and a handy, dandy bookmark clock. 

Your handy, dandy bookmark clock

Get your friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors to pledge you — they can pledge by the hour, or a single amount for the whole six weeks. Then you read, read, read between January 8th and February 19th. If you get hourly pledges, keep track of how much time you spend reading, and collect your pledges when the reading period is over. Turn them in by March 7 and collect a prize! You may even qualify for your own, customized READ poster!

Where do you begin?  At one of our kick-off parties, going on all around the city. At the Main Library, you can come to hear four different authors read from their work, curl up and read in one of our comfy reading chairs, talk to other readers, enjoy a cup of cocoa and win cool prizes! Or you can head to Beechview, Squirrel Hill, Mt. Washington, the Hill District, Woods Run, or West End to join in the city-wide community “Read In.”  Can’t make it on the 8th? Head to Lawrenceville on the 15th, or attend one of these other events.  This reading celebration goes on for 6 whole weeks!

Any time you come to a reading event or a book discussion, it counts as reading, as does reading blogs, newspapers and magazines, reading to your kids or grandkids, and listening to audiobooks. Don’t know what to read?  Our librarians can give you a personal recommendation, or you can browse our many lists of suggestions!

Really, it’s the easiest, and coziest, fundraiser ever, and all the money you raise helps us buy more books and other reading materials for you! How else would you rather spend these dark, cold winter months?

– Kaarin