The annual Father and Sons camp out for our ward (local LDS church congregation) was this past Friday and since my hubby wasn't planning to go, he stayed home with the girls so I could go out to dinner with a bunch of other wives and mothers whose husbands and sons were out camping. It was a BLAST! We had dinner at Cafe Zupas and had to keep adding tables as more girls showed up. I did the "take two combo" and decided to try the Thai Mango Salad and the dressing was SO spicy I couldn't finish it. The sandwich that was the second part of the combo was one of my all time favorites, Turkey Cranberry. Delicious! We split a slice of Sinful 7 Chocolate Cake between a few of us and it was wonderfully sinful! Going out for dinner with the girls and no kids was such a nice break from the normal pattern of my days. It was great to get a chance to really chat with and get to know the girls that I see only briefly on Sundays.
After dinner I was going to run some errands and ended up at the Library instead. My quick trip to pick up the book I had on hold morphed into an hour long journey into new authors and one's I hadn't read in a long time. I used to spend a lot of time at the library but as my family has increased in size my trips to the library for my books has decreased in number and length.
After picking up my book from the hold shelves I had an eye opening experience about asking for help. I decided that I wanted to check out another book and wanted to try something new so I asked the librarians at the circulation desk for suggestions. They were SO helpful! They suggested a similar author. I had already read her books and so the librarian then showed me an awesome blog on the library website where librarians rate the books they have read. It is a fantastic resource where you can look through the different categories of books that have been reviewed, such as: clean reads, fiction, historical fiction, horror, fantasy, graphic novels, etc... and find new titles to try.
After the librarian showed me the first blog, I logged into a library computer to look through it more closely and find some books to try. The librarian thought of another blog she thought would be helpful and came to find me and show me. She also went above and beyond and hunted down a book on the shelves that she was sure I would like and brought it to me while I was on the computer because she just couldn't rest until she had put a new book in my hand! Such a sweet lady
The second awesome blog on the library website that she showed me is full of reading recommendations based on what you already like to read. This blog has a similar format to the first one but has more topics(labels) you can peruse and includes authors in the list of topics. One of the best features of this blog is that you can submit a request to the librarians for book suggestions. You fill out a little questionnaire and they make 3-5 book suggestions based on your answers to the questionnaire.
I came home with 6 books instead of just 1 and I have a whole list of other books I want to try.
The very best part of these blogs, if you ask me, is that you don't have to sign in as a library card holder to access them! They are available on the library home page for anyone to use. When we do end up moving away I will still be able to find new authors and books through these awesome resources!
What are your favorite books and authors?
No comments:
Post a Comment