RA FOR ALL...THE ROAD SHOW!

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Friday, October 28, 2016

What I Was Reading in October of 2007 and Why It’s Useful to Your RA Work to Walk Down Memory Lane

Today I spent some time with my 9th grade daughter [who had a day off of school] in the morning and the went to my 6th grade son’s school to volunteer at the school library all afternoon.

All of this kept me away from a computer to post, but it also got me thinking about how fast time flies. They are so old and self sufficient. Even my daughter was feeling a bit nostalgic today and she ventured, with a group of friends, over to her old Junior High after it let out and went in to visit her old teachers.

When we all finally made it back home this afternoon, I was thinking about the 9 years I have been doing this blog and my thoughts quickly wandered to figuring out what I was reading 9 years ago this month.

Back then, I posted once a month about the books I was reading. So here is the “What I’m Reading” post from October 2007. Interestingly, all three books I chose to write about are still worth a read today.  Click through and see.

That month I also read, and led a discussion on, Water for Elephants. Talk about blast from the past.

My next stop down memory lane was to take a peek at my list of the favorite books I read in all of 2007. Here is that post. And again, every single one of those books can still be handed out as a good read [to the right reader] today.  I would also bet that every book on that list is still on the shelf at most public libraries in America.

Besides being fun, this trip down memory lane got me thinking about who I would suggest these books too. I was also getting upset at myself for forgetting about some of these awesome titles. And that is what led to me writing this post.

No, I did not plan to simply bore you today by making you look at my old reviews, rather, I am using myself as a very important example.

If you have been keeping track of your own reading for any amount of time, you can and should regularly look at the books you read in the past. Jog your memory about these titles. Get them out of the dark recesses of your brain and move them to the front-- prime real estate for making suggestions to patrons!

Seriously though, we all should be writing down something about the books we read so that we can use that information later-- way later in some cases. We all read and encounter so many books and titles. The newest and most newsworthy are dominating the book world and, as a result, are on the tips of our tongues. But there are plenty of wonderful titles we have forgotten.

So take yourself on a trip down memory lane to jog your memory of past books you enjoyed. You will come away from the trip with a whole bunch of fresh title suggestions to wow your patrons with.

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