A Bibliophile’s Challenge

Mark your calendars everybody. Synch up your Android or I-Phone, charge up the Ereader (or E-Reader), make sure the reading lamp works and double check the library card – the 2012 Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Winter Read-a-Thon is almost here.

From Valentine’s Day to the Ides of March – February 14th to March 15th – you read and it counts.  It counts towards your enjoyment, edification and pleasure.  It counts if you read to your kids, sitting in your favorite chair or during the obligatory 30 minutes you need before falling asleep.  It even counts if you listen to a book in your plane, train or automobile.

What counts?  Reading counts, and only for the sake of reading.  This year’s Winter Read-a-Thon has a goal.  We, all of us participating, are going to finish 20,012 pages, and it doesn’t matter if they’re paper, digital or audio; they’re all tomes and they all count.  For convenience sake, attending a book discussion counts too, and even newspapers and magazines figure on the pagination abacus.  Now that I’ve revved you up, where are the details you ask.  Think of this as a sneak preview without the preview.  Details will be forthcoming but they’re not ready yet.

In the meantime, if you’re looking to prep for your winter’s perusing or need some ideas, here are a few easy to find tools to utilize.  We like most of them — we made most of them.

These lists are updated and added to regularly by our librarians and other staff.

• New Fiction (There will be waiting lists for some of these.)  Take a look at some of the latest additions to our New and Featured Fiction collections! We check in new books nearly every day — check out the First Floor’s LibraryThing account where we log all of our newest arrivals!

• New Nonfiction

• Fiction Bestsellers (Alphabetical by author’s last name.)

• Nonfiction Bestsellers (Also listed alphabetically by author’s last name, but shelved by call number.)

• General Fiction  Myriad lists covering a range of interests and genres, something for all of us.  Just a few are listed here:
  • Art fiction
  • Books for bibliophiles
  • Books in Which Joseph Stalin Plays a Starring Role – How do you resist this?
  • Classic tearjerkers – great list, but missing Old Yeller.
  • Literature’s Greatest Hits

• Nonfiction Additional sub-lists of favorite subjects and genres.

• eCLP: eBooks, eAudio and eVideo. Your choice of Kindle, Nook or other reader compatible e-books, and a variety of audio books.

Finally, if you’re skeptical of the tools used (and assembled) by the hoi-polloi, then we can always direct you to the New York Times Best Seller List – all 23 of them – from Paperback Trade Fiction all the way down to Political Books.

So stay tuned, keep coming back to our pages, or call us at 412 622-3114 and ask about the 2012 Winter Read-a-Thon.

-Richard