Adult summer reading program

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News, May 2013; written by Lisa Pearson.

After many years of watching kids flock to the library in early June to sign up for Summer Reading Club (and being envious of all the cool decorations, prizes and events), we have decided to create a Summer Reading Club for grown-ups. Keeping in mind the busy schedules we all seem to have during these warm, sunny months, the club is completely informal and can be easily adapted to family vacations, fishing season, and heavy cruise ship days.

Each month there will be a different theme, with booklists, games, prize drawings and fun activities. No registration is required and there are no set goals (other than to enjoy yourself). We will be conducting a brief survey at the end of the season to see what aspects of the club people liked and what suggestions you might have for next summer.

We kicked the club off this month with the timely theme of gardening. Whether you are an experienced vegetable grower, starting your first container of flowers, or restricting your efforts to houseplants, we have lots of books and videos on propagating, growing and harvesting. Drop off or email us a photo of your plants, and we will post it up on our garden gallery. We are also hosting a seed exchange. Bring your leftover seed packets to the library and exchange them for someone else’s garden favorites. Be sure to pick up a biodegradable starter pot. If you’re looking for something to read, we have a booklist of garden-themed novels. And don’t forget to enter the drawing for a mini-Italian garden: a basil plant and a tomato plant (the tomato plant already has blossoms!).

June is science month and a great time to delve into the library’s collection of science miscellanea. Try your hand with a little homemade science. We have instruction sheets for a variety of different science experiments in a jar. Pick up a game card and play Science Book Bingo; read books from 3 different scientific disciplines and you will be entered into a drawing for one of 3 Mason jar science kits. We have lots of documentaries you can watch about astronomy, math, physics, and biology. We will also have life sciences coloring sheets, focusing on anatomy, zoology and botany. Submit yours for our coloring contest.

The club’s theme for July will be focused on the cinema. In addition to our weekly classic movie screenings (like Casablanca), we are encouraging people to hold a little film festival of their own at home with their friends and family. We have a selection of over fifty Criterion Collection films for you to choose from, as well as a ballot to vote for your favorites. And because it is a summer reading club, we have also have a list of over 60 Hollywood biographies you can read. At the end of the month we will be holding a drawing for a Movie Night basket, complete with those classic movie theater candies guaranteed to make your dentist flinch.

We will wind up the 2013 Adult Summer Reading Club with history. During August we encourage you to dwell in the past. Find albums in our CD collection popular when you were in high school. Explore back issues of the Alaska Sportsman and the local Ketchikan papers. We’ll have historical novel suggestions covering a wide range of time periods, along with corresponding nonfiction titles about the era, so you can explore a little more. And every week you can play a new round of “Guess the classic author”.

Be sure to keep an eye on the library calendar for upcoming author visits, paleontology lectures, historical storytelling and more. We will be continuing to add events as the summer progresses. Who says reading can’t be fun for grown-ups?