What are People Reading These Days?

Avoid shoveling the snow, stay inside and curl up with a good book. Since March is National Reading Month, I want to highlight the Friends of the Library (FOL) Used Book Sale at the Olney library. Other volunteers and I sift through, organize and shelve donations from local residents. We receive and sell bestselling novels, nonfiction, popular children’s (preschool through teenage) books, even DVDs of recent movies – all for 50 cents to one dollar a piece! 

A few years ago, I shared my unscientific observations of the Olney community based on donations to the MGH Women's annual used book sale. While working on FOL Used Book Sale, I've noticed trends in donations, including: 

*   Romance novels (Nora Roberts, Danielle Steele, etc.)

*   Erotic romance (series like Fifty Shades of Grey, Bared to You, One Night Promised/Denied, Beneath This Man)

*   Crime (James Patterson, Patricia Cornwall, etc.)

*   Travel (guidebooks, foreign language phrase books, travelogues)

*   Self-help/inspirational nonfiction (Chicken Soup for the Soul series, Eat, Pray, Love, etc. )

*   Humor (Chelsea Handler, Mindy Kaling, Woody Allen, Dave Barry, etc.) 

If this selection truly reflects readers’ tastes, Olney seems to be an escapist community, traveling through guidebooks, frothy romances, erotic tales, whodunnit mysteries, Zen/”finding oneself” memoirs or just good old-fashioned humor.

Visit the FOL Used Book Sale at the Olney library to find a bargain “staycation” … or at least to spy on what other people read.

Olney Library Kiosk -- More Than Expected

The Olney Library's kiosk has finally been set up at the Longwood Recreation Center; maybe now I can cut down on my treks to the Howard County library in Glenwood.

Yesterday on my way home from Glenwood, I passed by Longwood to retrieve a MCPL book on Hold. I didn't know what to expect at the kiosk/MCPL Express @ Olney. At first, the setup was what I predicted: 2 carts of books, a book return dropbox, and a vending machine that dispenses books and media instead of candy and chips.

Then I saw the wall of lockers containing materials on Hold for pickup. Following directions on an electronic keypad, I typed in my MC library card's last 4 digits and heard a low "Click" ... then a door swung open slowly and silently, like a James Bond gadget. I reached in and took out my book, expecting the door to mysteriously close by itself. Well, it didn't; I'm simply closed it myself.

But wait, there's more. A large box beside the vending machine is a DVD dispenser! I could search for any DVD in the MCPL system and if the DVD dispenser had it, I could borrow it. The DVD dispenser is like a public Redbox, but with no rental fee and a borrowing time of more than 1 night (up to 3 weeks)! Then I perused the small selection of books on the carts and found the bestselling hard-to-find-unless-you-order-it-as-an-ebook erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey ... which of course I had to borrow just to see what all the fuss is about.

Enough about my reading tastes: I encourage Olney residents to visit the MCPL Express @ Olney at Longwood. Of course it can't replace our beloved library, but at last Olney has a substitute that offers something for everyone, including children's, young adult and adult fiction and nonfiction, audiobooks, and DVDs. Happy reading, listening and viewing!

What Books Say About Their Readers

Get ready for books, games, fried chicken, corn and more at MGH Women's Board's 91st Annual Picnic and Bazaar this Tuesday, July 26! For several years, I’ve volunteered to help weed through donated books in order to select ones in sellable shape for the huge Used Book Sale. The Olney community has always been so generous, providing thousands of tomes of bestselling fiction and nonfiction, children's books, cookbooks, test prep guides and more.

Fellow volunteers and I often wonder about the reader who owned and donated a specific eye-catching title. When we receive boxes of books on one particular subject, we know that issue was certainly on the donator’s mind. Some of the most interesting contributions we've seen include:

• Self-help guides involving marriage and family from Dr. Phil, Dr. Laura, and Dr. Ruth

• The Complete Illustrated Kama Sutra

• Advice books from the 1950s on how to be a good wife

• Several copies of Alcoholics Anonymous' 12-Step Program

• The Metrosexual Guide To Style: A Handbook For The Modern Man (look for stylish guys around town)

• An autographed copy of an Ansel Adams photography book

• A photo of George H. Bush, signed "To my good friend Michael" (I guess Michael wasn’t that good a friend)

• Women Who Do Too Much and Women with Attention Deficit Disorder: Embrace Your Differences and Transform Your Life (an apt description of many Olney women)

• The Lawyers' Book Of Ethics by Judge James N. Court (all of the pages are blank)

• Religion guides (are people spreading or shying away from faith?)

• money management guides, like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Investing for Dummies, and books by Suze Orman (in this economy, people either have no money to invest or have given up and chucked any financial advice)

We also receive in boxes from people cleaning out their attics/basements/houses: outdated encyclopedias; mildewed magazines from the early 1900’s, especially Life and National Geographic; obsolete travel, computer, and software guides; appliance instructions; yearbooks; and moldy, ripped books. I think many people have a packrat mentality, a fear of throwing out or even recycling something because SOMEONE could use it.