How to Read a Whole Damn Book Every Week | by Kevin Nguyen

Books | Reading | Tips

It may sound difficult, but the secret to reading a book every week is to not be precious about it.

Every year, I read over a hundred books. This means I polish off somewhere between two and three books a week. I'm not saying that to brag (okay, I am), but I really believe that anyone can make time to read. Chances are you wish you read more, since everyone feels this way (except me, I’m amazing). The secret is to not think of reading as a precious thing. If you’re only going to open a book on the off chance you have several hours to kill in a comfy chair with a glass of scotch, it’s only ever going to happen when you have several hours to kill in a comfy chair with a glass of scotch.

Being well read means making it a part of your daily life—not treating it as a luxury. And it’s not that hard. Like all things, it just takes a little bit of discipline and a little bit of trickery. Read more...

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How to Read 100 Books a Year

by Darius Foroux • 01/25/16 10:03am

Does your reading list keep growing? Did you buy books that you’ve never read? It might be time to cross more books from your list this year than ever.

If you’re reading less than you want, you’re not the only one. One year ago I looked at my Goodreads page and noticed that I had read only five books in 2014. That realization frustrated me.

I love books, but since I graduated college in 2011, I’d been reading fewer books every single year. My work and life got in the way of reading as much as I wanted.

Why read 100 books in a year? You read because you want to learn from other people’s experience. Otto von Bismarck put it best:

“Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.”

Read more....
http://observer.com/2016/01/how-to-read-100-books-a-year/

Goodreads Reaches 10 Million Members, 360 Million Books - SocialTimes

Goodreads Reaches 10 Million Members, 360 Million Books - SocialTimes

Devon Glenn on August 13, 2012 12:00 PM The social network for reading, sharing, and recommending books now boasts 10 million members, who have collectively shelved more than 360 million books since the site launched in January 2007. Goodreads announced the milestone on August 13, 2012 in a post on the company blog.
Most of the growth has happened in the last 15 months, according to Goodreads community manager Patrick Brown. The first 5 million members signed up during the first four and a half years. Since then, membership has doubled. Read more...

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Join Us for a Book Club Meeting Next Month!

Hi, All-

I’m writing to extend an invitation to join us for the next meeting of our New York Librarians Book Club. Although we’re happy to have returning attendees, the group is open to anyone who wants to drop in for occasional discussions. Our upcoming meeting will be held at a member’s apartment in Chelsea on Tuesday, February 15^th at 6:30 PM. We welcome you to join us for a casual book discussion with other librarians and library students, a light meal, and some post-Valentine’s Day candy!

Our first club selection was This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save the World by Marilyn Johnson, followed by Sinclair Lewis’ Nobel Prize-winning small town satire Main Street, in which the protagonist, Carol Milford, spends her pre-marriage years as a public librarian in the Twin Cities. Our next title is the member-suggested The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr.

If you’d like to participate in online discussions, post ideas for future group reads, or message other book clubbers, please check out (and join!) our Goodreads group, here: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/38703.The_New_York_Librarians_Book_Club

You can RSVP for the book club meeting on MeetUp; we hope to see you there!

Happy Reading!

Meet the New York Librarians Book Club!

The NY Librarians book group met at Pauline's place on 11/30 to discuss Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. The discussion was led by Larissa, and opening comments were provided by Stephanie.

Larissa initiated the discussion by distributing some wonderful turn of the century images of Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Sauk Centre was Sinclair Lewis' hometown and purportedly the inspiration for Gopher Prairie, the primary setting of the novel. Stephanie then delivered a brief biography of Sinclair Lewis, and discussed his writing in the context of his contemporaries, Theodore Dreiser, Willa Cather, and Ernest Hemingway. We discussed his Nobel Prize, and his nomination, award, and refusal of the Pulitzer Prize.

The discussion progressed and touched on a number of varied topics explored in the text of Main Street such as: librarians, the settlement of the American Midwest, the nature of small-town living, ennui, community development initiatives, judging and criticizing vs. organizing public service programs, architecture, internal and external motivation for behaviors, the reasons a character may choose to return to a place they fled, and finally socially and intellectually uplifting experiences vs. light entertainment.

We also spent a pleasant amount of time talking about our own jobs, interests, and aspirations. In addition to hosting, Pauline distributed free copies of the novel The Eleanor Roosevelt Girls by Bonnie Bluh. The next book to be discussed was not selected, but it was determined that www.GoodReads.com was a useful tool for sharing information about potential reading material.

Generally, it was a lovely evening. Please consider joining us next time.

Jane

Meetup discussion group: Please weigh in!

Cover via Amazon

My name is Larissa Kyzer and I am an Assistant Organizer for the NY Librarians MeetUp Group and an MSLIS student at the Palmer School in Manhattan. I'm interested in starting a book club which would meet every other month to discuss non-professional books about libraries and librarians. Some preliminary ideas for books to read are This Book is Overdue! by Marilyn Johnson, Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles, and Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian by Scott Douglas. These are all nonfiction titles, but we could also read some "fun" fiction titles--for instance, there are a ton of "bibliomysteries" featuring librarians.
I'm assuming that people would prefer to meet and discuss in person, but we could also use the NY Librarian MeetUp's existing Goodreads page to post thoughts about the books we read online. I've seen a couple book groups that are only conducted through Goodreads (not in person) and they seem to work pretty well.


So:
1. Are people interested in a library-themed book group?
2. If so, would you prefer in-person, virtual, or combo meetings?
3. Any book suggestions?
Looking forward to your feedback--thanks!

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