RA for All Is Off for Yom Kippur

 I am off today for the holiest day of my year. I will be back tomorrow.

Dolly's Patron's Imagination Library at Your Library

As we all know, Dolly Parton died. She was an amazing human in so many ways. I am legitimately sad that we lost her. And she died around the corner (literally) from where my son was sitting in his Vanderbilt dorm room. Steps from where I was standing on Monday morning as I was saying goodbye after move-in (when she was behind those walls). It gave me chills. 

There is so much to say but, for this blog I want to focus on her work with books, literacy, and libraries.

Before we get there though, I know you are all getting those displays up to honor her-- in every department-- so, I wanted to remind you how to make those displays stretch past the next few days and the limited explicitly "Dolly" books.

You should pull other books about the history of country music, Eastern TN, the Smokey Mountains (yes even guide books) and the memories and biographies of other popular musicians (living and dead) and not just country. 

It is not only that people are going to want to read about Dolly and Dolly adjacent things. It is more than that. When someone this ubiquitously popular dies, people who wouldn't normally visit the library come in to see what we have about that person. They know the library is the place to go for information. Make sure you are ready to receive new (to you) patrons by having up displays that anticipate their needs. Maybe the Dolly books are out, but they will be perusing what else you have and showcasing the breadth of your offerings in a variety of Dolly adjacent displays will showcase the breadth of your holdings and how you are there to help them anytime they visit. 

I have seen this happen in real time. Someone comes in for info or a book tied to a current event and they leave with something else (as well) because they forgot how much we have to offer. And if only a small percentage of these people come back, you have added new library users and supporters to your community.

Okay obligatory RA Service statement -- done. The other thing people re going to ask about is Dolly Patron's Imagination Library. While it began as a way to mail books to kids, it has expanded by working directly through local public libraries. This part of the program is less well known, even by librarians.

Since people are extremely interested in learning more (I cannot even get the page to find a program near you to load the traffic is so heavy) and chances are very high that your library is not an official partner, you are going to need to have information ready for your staff to talk to patrons. Some may even be asking you to join. 

But don't worry, Becky is here to help you. My friend is the Director of the Linden Free Public Library. The only partner with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in the state of NJ is the Friends of Linden Library who fully fund and administer the program with donations from the public.

The ABC7 NY affiliate came to their library yesterday to report on the program. Click here to watch the video and read the written story here. The President of the Friends does an excellent job explaining the program for a general audience. However, you may have questions of a more specific nature.

If you have questions for this library and their Friends about how they became a location for Dolly's Imagination Library, email them at friends [at] lindenpl [dot] org. Or, reach out to them via their Facebook page here. They understand the entire process and can help you reach out and join team Dolly at your library.

Celebrating the Life & Legacy of Fobazi Ettarh at ALA Annual

As you may know, Fobazi Ettarh, librarian and LIS scholar who named the concept of vocational awe, passed away in late January of this year. Her loss has been felt deeply in the Library Community.

Please click here to read her seminal article on Vocational Awe.

Fobazi’s family will hold a public in-person celebration of life in honor of her life and legacy in Chicago on Saturday June 27 1-3 PM, at the South Asia Institute (1925 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, 2nd floor; elevator available). This is walking distance from the convention center.

All who knew and loved Fobazi or were impacted by her work are welcome to attend. Colleagues, friends, and family will speak in her memory, and food and refreshments will be provided.  

Please RSVP on Eventbrite to help estimate attendance and manage catering. This event is free; however, for those who are interested in making contributions to Fobazi's family to defray lingering costs, please feel free to make a contribution at this GoFundMe.

I hope to se many of you there.

Click here to register 

Soccer Novels for World Cup Fever

The World Cup is about to begin and there are more excellent novels about soccer than you would think. In fact,  the World Cup is the perfect time to take advantage of one of my RA Basics: Promote the Books Patrons Would Not Find Without Your Help, because when we help readers find books they would never find without us, that is how we make ourselves indispensable in their lives.

The World Cup is the perfect event to prove this rule. Why? Well, first off, people who never watch soccer any other time of the year will get wrapped up in the World Cup. Putting out novels that feature the sport-- in a variety of genres-- will pique their interest. Also, with the event in North America and many cities without games still hosting watch satires in their MLS stadiums, we need to jump open the bandwagon somehow.

LitHub published a great piece today entitled, "Is This the Strangest Soccer Novel Ever Written?: TOBIAS CARROLL ON CARLOS LABBÉ'S THE MURMURATION."

From the introduction:

This piece was published in collaboration with Golden Goal, a literary magazine about the intersection of politics, culture and sport at the 2026 World Cup. To read more, visit their website: goldengoal.world. 

Over the years, writers from around the world have tried their hands at using soccer as a backdrop for memorable fiction. Tonally speaking, they cover a vast terrain, including J.L. Carr’s comic How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A. Cup and Leonard Gribble’s whodunit The Arsenal Stadium Mystery. Some will cut more deeply for soccer fans of a literary bent; others can be savored no matter what your feelings about the beautiful game might be. David Peace’s modernist Red or Dead, about the life of the legendary Liverpool coach Bill Shankly, left me frequently breathless despite having little emotional investment in the ups and downs of Liverpool.

If that novel—a work of precisely composed prose in which Peace uses repetition and the sheer bulk of its more than 800 pages to take the reader into Shankly’s inner life and the meticulous rhythms of his squad’s play—represents one pole of how to make a great soccer novel, standing opposite it is Carlos Labbé’s 2015 The Murmuration, translated into English by Will Vanderhyden. I feel comfortable declaring that The Murmuration is the strangest novel ever written about the game of soccer. The bulk of the novel uses a real event as its setting: the 1962 World Cup semi-final between Chile and Brazil. That part of it, at least, will be familiar to longtime soccer enthusiasts. Where things get a little weirder comes when Labbé introduces psychic powers into the mix.

Click here to read more about this awesome book. 

I see in my system, this book is on Hoopla only, so you might have to add a physical copy to your collections, but as I have said many times, you need to make your display in the building and online. This is a greta opportunity to build lists for people to access books via Hoopla and Libby as well as int he building. Please add QR codes to those digital lists to your physical displays.

Now here are trusted humans created lists of more soccer books for your World Cup displays:

• Goodreads lists tagged soccer (all genres and nonfiction included)
• Well-written books about soccer-- Reddit
• Fiction books about footballers (soccer)-- Reddit
• Books about football/soccer-- Reddit
• For the Love of the Game: Soccer Books--Chicago Public Library Staff Created List
• use your closest big city library's catalog to find more like this. 
• 23 Books All Soccer Fans Should Read -- BuzzFeed

There is overlap here, but also plenty of titles to fill out a small World Cup themed display. Also bonus points if you can get your library to allow you to make a display that uses the whole collection, media, and even allows books for all ages in one place near the front of your library. Here is a post where I help you have resources to argue for "Inter-Generational" displays.

RA for All Off for the Memorial Day Weekend But First....

Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial start of Summer here in America, so before I head off to spend some time with the family, here is great, diverse Summer Reading list of 15 books that will satisfy just about every reader via the NPR Books We Love Team of staffers and critics.

Hope you have a good book to read this weekend. I am very lucky to have the upcoming Alma Katsu and Rachel Harrison both on deck with reviews due to Booklist next week.

Back Tuesday with new posts.

Brooklyn Public Library's 250 for 250 List

In honor of our country's 250th Anniversary, the Brooklyn Public Library is celebrating the best way they know how, with a thoughtful, surprising, irresistible booklist. Organized by genre and category of interest, this all-ages list is a deep dive on the stories, voices and moments that shaped America. Selected by their expert librarians—with help from a few notable New Yorkers!—they have presented their list of the 250 most influential books in United States history.

To create this list, a committee of nearly two dozen librarians performed what Chief Librarian Edwin Maxwell calls "collective alchemy." They whittled down over 600 contenders to find the titles that truly define the American experiment—vibrant, sometimes messy, groundbreaking. This is a curated list of books, published between 1776 and 2025, that reflect the spectrum of American thought, argument, imagination and contradiction.

And because everything is better with a little star power, BPL enlisted a few notable NYC bookworms to pen short essays on their favorites. Ethan Hawke discusses The Outsiders, Constance Wu muses on Gilead and "Recess Therapy" host Julian Shapiro-Barnum weighs in on the graphic novel American Born Chinese.

From the Time Out New York article about the list itself:

The list kicks off with the fiery rhetoric of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and takes readers all the way to the present, weaving through centuries of stories that reflect who Americans have been, who they are and who they’re still arguing about becoming. It captures the full range of American experiences, especially voices that haven’t always been front and center.

"Books remain one of our most powerful tools for defending democracy. They help us understand ourselves, each other, and the world around us. Together, the books on this list tell a story of our nation, our commitment to the ideals of freedom and justice for all, and that ongoing search for common ground,” said Linda E. Johnson, President and CEO, Brooklyn Public Library. “From Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, we learn the dreams of our founding fathers. In Betty Smith’s novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, we feel the joys and hardships of growing up in our beloved borough at the turn of the century. Poet Mary Oliver’s Devotions reminds us to remember what it means to be alive and that our most important responsibility is to care for one another. As we continue to pursue a perfect union, this extraordinary list considers the full range of the American—and human—experience.”

Now from our perspective, library workers from across the country trying to help readers, a list of 250 books from across the breadth of America's existence, including titles for all ages of readers, fiction and nonfiction, all genres, is helpful on its own, even if a little daunting. 

But BPL has added sortable, clickable tags for appeal and topic/genre as well, so readers can create their own mini-list within the list. Try it for yourself, here.

At your library you can offer your readers online access so they can peruse the list on their won or use it to make your own displays and lists as well.

As we creep closer to July 4th, the 250th birthday of America is going to become more and more popular. Now is a great time to use the BPL list as a spring board to creating your own conversation starter to display moment. 

Use my post about how to use a conversation starter questions to poll staff and patrons and create a local crowd sourced display. In this case, your community question is "To celebrate the 250th Birthday of Our Country We Want to Know Your Favorite Books Written By Americans." Make sure to encourage any books-- fiction, nonfiction,. graphic novels, kids to adult. Anything. Add a QR code to the BPL list to make sure people think broadly.

You can ask this question in your online spaces by linking to the BPL list as well. Offer it up as the example you are trying to replicate but for YOUR community. 

Speaking of your community, I really love how out of the 250, they have 8 that are endorsed by "Notable New Yorkers," and that category has a tag where you can click to pull them all up at once.

While you are asking everyone to share their books for our 250th Birthday, identify a few local people, mayor, business owners, anyone notable and influential in your community and ask them to pick a book that you will highlight. It is a great way to do some targeted outreach to important members of your community and allow them a chance to connect with the community in a new way.

Thanks to BPL for putting out this list so the rest of us can use it as a springboard board to our own bookish celebrations.

Black History Month Displays and Genre: An Example For You To Use for All Identity Months

This is a repost from 2024:

I do not spend a lot of time on heritage months here on the blog mostly because I know most of you have them covered. My biggest problem though is that many libraries only highlight books by marginalized authors during their "month" and then not at all. 

Last year during Pride, I did an entire post about this issue here. Please read it because it has a lot of excellent information and I am not going to repeat any of it, but know all of it is implied in today's post.

Today I have what you could consider, "Part 2" of that post.

I want you to look at your Black History Month displays because from what I see they mostly contain literary fiction with some historical and maybe like 1 romance. Where is the genre? 

I know where it is. It is left languishing on the shelf because of systemic oppression and well meaning white librarians who think they are helping by "elevating" Black voices during "their" month 

It is a version of what I wrote back in 2019 about the unintended racism in our resources, especially when we are talking about genre.

Let me back up a little because I know some of you are thinking I just called you racist. Let me be clear-- I did not. What I am referring to the fact that our mostly white work force in librarianship tends to uplift only the people of color who fit the standard of the very best of publishing. They think that by highlighting those who fit the standard of "literary" that they are showing Black writers at their best.

When I put it this way, I hope you start to see the problem.

Black people read and write books about everything. Just like white people. In fact, for those who forget this, when Robin does her portion of our Actively Anti-Racist Service to Readers program, she ends  her presentation with examples of Black writers producing works on every topic.

When it is Black History Month, we should be highlighting as wide a range of Black authors as possible. That includes those who hold other identities beyond being Black (again, see Pride post)

[FYI: you can insert any identity into this argument because all people write all kinds of books, but we are using this, one of the most commonly celebrated identity months in libraries, to make you think about this problem.]

Specifically, I would like to discuss the exclusion of genre. Genres are already looked down upon by the world. Publishers and library workers try to lift them up by saying something is a "literary" Thriller or Fantasy or Horror, especially when it is written by someone from a marginalized perspective(again see that post from 2019).

All Black History Month displays must include genre titles. Not including genre is a disservice to what you are trying to do which is showcase the breadth of titles you own by Black people. It is also unfair to your readers of any identity. You are not allowing them to find a book for them. What about the straight, Asian woman who loves speculative? Guess what, she would love to learn about a Rivers Solomon book because their books are awesome. You aren't only suggesting Fonda Lee. Of course not. But I use this obvious example to make you take a hard look at your well meaning self.

Think about it this way, what percentage of your checkouts are literary fiction vs genres? I am not going to wait for you to check because you know the answer-- literary fiction is way below almost every genre in circulation. [I have stats from multiple libraries. LJ reports, and NoveList's data on searches within hundreds of library catalogs to prove it, but you know I am right so let's move on.]

Now the question you knew was coming: Why aren't your Black History Month Displays more genre than lit fic? Again, see above, but the summary is the long tail of white supremacy and systemic oppression

All genres have titles by Black authors, titles you already own. Put them on display. It is not too late to fix your displays. We just finished the first full week of February. Get on it now and remember to do it for every identity month display going forward.

One final note, my friend Alex Brown made this comment on Twitter the other day, one that I cannot leave this post without pointing it out because it is a related problem:

Do not do this! As they go on to say in the thread (paraphrase):

Black History Month is about celebrating Blackness and its history. Do not clog it up with white people providing context. 

And now my comment as a White lady:

This is not about you! It is about making space for others to speak for themselves. Do not insert yourself and your perspective. Get out of the way. Your job here is to find titles to let Black people speak for themselves.

Please take this post and the Pride month post from last June and use them to both celebrate every identity month and make sure your displays are diverse all year long.

31 Days of Horror Has Begun on the Horror Blog

Cross posting today:

31 Days of Horror: Day 1-- Here We Go Again for the 15th Year and the First Giveaway

Today is October 1st and here we are again with 31 Days of Horror.

Each year 31 Days of Horror grows in readership. While some of you are here all year long, even when this blog is limited to my weekly #HorrorForLibraries giveaways, each year I get many new people joining in on the spooky blog-a-thon fun.

And this year, with Why I Love Horror: Essays in Horror Literature out in the world, I will have even more, and probably many more non library staff. But don't fear (pun intended), the audience for this blog-a-thon is still (and always will be) you, the library worker.

First things first, if you have never encountered 31 Days of Horror before well, I have been doing this event since 2011.

[Side note, it all began inauspiciously with this post. Nothing special, just a basic post about  the appeal of Horror, but I htinkit is important to acknowledge that inauspicious beginning.]

The entire idea of 31 Days of Horror, began as a way to help library workers during the time of year when they need the most help with Horror. However, I did not want this series to become a list of lists either. 

From that desire to give you something original and useful was born a concurrent series entitled Why I Love Horror. In this series, that runs mostly, but not only, during October, I reach out to people in the Horror world and invite them to contribute essays written for you-- the general library worker. These invited people are told to share why they love horror as a creator and fan in 1500 words or less. Once again,  I have quite an exciting lineup planned.

My goal with the "Why I Love Horror" series has always been to expose you to people you should know about AND give you even more context for appeal. I can give you all the examples in the world of why people enjoy feeling scared when they read, but until you hear from actual fans, fans who also create Horror, it is hard to understand, especially for the vast majority of you who don't enjoy Horror for yourselves. 

Over the years I have had many people contribute to the Why I Love Horror series from up and comers [some of whom have gone on to become big names] to firmly established authors to folks who love horror in the library world. 

You can click here to see them all. "Why I Love Horror" is also a searchable tag any time, just like 31 Days of Horror.

"Why I Love Horror" is an excellent resource to help you help readers, and it is a Horror RA resource you cannot find anywhere else. 

Click here to learn more

And  as I said above, Why I Love Horror is now a book that you can buy and make available for your patrons as well. 

However, it even with me on tour for the book all this month, Why I Love Horror content is not the only way you can use this blog as a resource now and all year long.

In the past few years, I also started another new series within his 31 day series, and that was to feature a small Horror press. This year it will be Creature Publications and I will have much more to say about them and their authors the week of the 13th. 

A few other notes about what to expect here.:

• I am going to move my links roundups to every Sunday. Mostly you will not see lists and posts from other places here on 31 Days of Horror as I tend to focus on original content, but I don't want those awesome lists and articles to get lost either. Expect those on 10/5, 12, 19, and 26.
• Giveaways will not only happen on Thursdays. During this month, giveaways can be offered on any day of the week, but all winners are pulled Friday after 5pm. But, if you want to be eligible to win, enter now. Click here for the rules. In fact, this opening day post will end with a giveaway!

But let's not get too ahead of ourselves on Day 1. Remember, this blog is not just about my October content. It stands as a resource on Horror, both as a free update to my textbook, and as the most comprehensive resource for working with Horror readers in libraries all year long.

I have more than tags for you to use to access content. If you look in the right gutter of the blog, under the cover of my book, there is a list of pages you can find on here. That list is on EVERY page, so you don't have to worry about a huge link tree to find them. Access is easy, intuitive, and FREE

The pages with their direct links are:

• Summer Scares Resources and FAQ
• Third Edition Bonus Content: More Subgenre Annotations
• Horror Resources 
• Best Independent Horror Publishers for Libraries
• Horror Awards
• Archive of Becky's Lists Articles and Presentations
• Summer Scares Archive [direct link but it is also on the FAQ page linked above]
• Horror Reviews Index

In the spirit of being THE Horror for Libraries resource, I make sure each page lists the last time it was updated in the title. I curate all of this information and stand behind it.

So while this October you may be more focused on my 31 Days of Horror daily posts and Why I love Horror content, please know those pages with links are there all year long to help you find, display, and promote horror.

This blog should be the first place you go for all of your Horror RA, Collection Development, and Programming needs. I get no extra money from you visiting here. I keep this blog up for me as much as all of you. It is a record of all of the information I am using to stay up to date too. However, if you want to support my efforts to keep doing this work for another, please consider buying a copy of my book for your library and/or hiring me to train your library staff on a variety of topics. 

So poke around the site today, later this month, in a few months, whenever you need it. We will have a lot of fun for the rest of October, but  just remember, I am always here for all of your Horror for Libraries needs

And remember.... your Horror loving patrons are not monsters; they just like to read about them.

Let me hold your hand as we explore the scariest genre together.

As promised, we begin with a giveaway. Actually it's 2 books for 2 winners. Both are finished copies of titles I was not able to review but they are both titles I want to make sure to let you know about so you can add them to your collections. Details below but first, here are the rules on how to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American Library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

Click here to see last week's giveaway. Our winners were Stacey from NE and Rachel from TX.

Now on to this week's giveaway:

First up is If You Knew Me by S.P. Minkowski. From Goodreads:

In this twisted psychological thriller from acclaimed horror author S.P. Miskowski, a novice reporter walks a perilous tightrope between ambition and obsession.

Parker Dillon can’t win. Just as she’s trying to start her journalism career, her aunt sells the website where she works, and the new owner is keen to replace employees with AI. But her luck seems to turn when she discovers an intriguing cold pitch buried in her aunt’s files.

Ann Mason claims she did something terrible and never got caught. She’s also weirdly infatuated with a long-forgotten TV star. Desperate for a spectacular feature, Parker tracks Ann from Seattle to her home in Arizona. But as she interviews neighbors, coworkers, and friends, her quarry grows increasingly elusive, and her story turns deadlier than she ever imagined.

Parker can’t shake the feeling that she’s the subject, not the author, of this macabre piece—the prey, not the hunter. The more she learns about Ann’s obsessions and drives, the more it’s like looking in a cracked mirror. And Parker’s not sure she likes what she sees…

Second  I have The Burial Tide by Neil Sharpton. From Goodreads:

Drawing on the creatures and horrors of Irish folklore, The Burial Tide unearths our darkest truths: how far we’d go to win our freedom, and how quickly our desires can become monstrous.

A woman who can’t remember her death.

On an eerily quiet island off the coast of Ireland, a woman with no memory claws her way out of her grave and back to life. But not everyone welcomes the return of Mara Fitch.

An island with a terrible secret.

Inishbannock. Where strange misshapen figures watch from the trees and the roads are covered in teeth. Where two brothers gamble for nothing, the doctor only treats the dead, and the pub owner speaks in riddles. Where a poet loses and finds his soul. And a husband without a wife claims to know everything about Mara.

A past that refuses to stay buried. As Mara returns to her life on this upside-down island, her memories begin to leech their way back to the surface. The more she remembers, the more the village will do anything to stop her . . . 

 But the sea remembers it all.

Thank you to the publishers for these finished paperbacks. You can add these titles to your libraries ASAP if you win, but everyone should order these books now. Both came out in September.  

Enter now and you are entered going forward.

The winners will be drawn in the order the books are listed here. Good luck!

Now let's do this-- 31 Days of Horror has begun.

Getting Ready for the Spookiest Month With Me in People Magazine Online

31 Days of Horror will begin this week, I would like to get us ready here with some baby steps today by sharing the conversation between Alma Katsu and myself that People Magazine published yesterday.

You can read our piece-- Why Horror is Having a Moment? Authors Alma Katsu and Becky Spratford Break it Down Here. From the intro:

In their conversation, the horror-lovers sat down to discuss exactly why horror has made its way onto readers' bookshelves worldwide, and how the genre has evolved over the last decade.

Yes, I was a part of this, but that is not the reason I am sharing it. I am posting it here because having this conversation about horror and its current best authors (not just King and Hill) in a mainstream magazine, with a huge reach, a place that does not only talk about books and reading, a place that is not "literary," all of this means horror is really entering the mainstream conversation. It's not just that more people are reading it, more people are talking about it.

By the way, we talk about Horror for teens and kids as well. So pass this on to your YS staff,

This conversation came out of Alma wanting to take the conversations the two if us have had for years (going back to when she was the Summer Scares spokesperson in 2022).

This is part of a larger argument I have written about many times-- Use the Resources Our Readers Use. From the beginning of that post:

Too often we library workers who help leisure readers get too caught up in the weeds of the book world, only reading and checking the most bookish of resources as we try to stay up to date on the newest books and trends.

But here's the thing we need to remember, our readers are not looking at book specific sites for book info, rather, most of them are identifying titles from the places where they already are visiting and/or reading that also happen to have book coverage.

So listening to NPR, reading their local papers, watching morning news shows, and places like People Magazine-- which just had this list of their Best Books of June 2024. 

Actually, People Magazine is the best example of today's reminder post. They have solid book coverage on their site and in their print magazine-- both of which are very popular with a wide swath of American readers. 

People was one of my examples, but the point remains-- using the resources our readers are consulting in their daily lives and noting their books coverage will help you help them.

This is huge for Horror. We are having a conversation about the genre as it is RIGHT NOW. Not the old authors of the past. Not Stephen King. There is a vibrancy in the genre that people like Alma and myself know and we want to share it.

Getting this conversation into a mainstream-- non book specific-- publication means the conversation will spread outside of bookish circles this coming October. My book tour and the national coverage it is receiving (my NYPL event was listed in the NYT last week as well...gift link here) will continue the conversation.

That was always the goal of this book. To spotlight what horror is today and get the authors and the titles and the very best of horror right now out to as many people as possible. It is working. But I need your help. Please use this article to start your Horror displays now. Please use the 18 authors in my book and their 18 readlikes as the base of your displays. DO NOT put out Stephen King. Remember my rules about book displays-- we are here to show people the books they could not find without our help.

Bookish Conversations Are Hot Even As Leisure Reading Rates Go Down

So I know some of you were like, wow Becky just ignored that report last week about the study that found that over the last 20 years there has been a steady decline in Americans reading for pleasure. (Click here to access it via PW.)

I did not. Rather, instead of posting the report-- which is very interesting and way more nuanced than the click bait headlines-- in a vacuum, I held on to it until I felt like I had something more to add to this conversation.

One of the things the study found was that people who are already readers have been reading more since Covid, which I see reflected in the library as well. Our patrons are taking out more books per person, while the number of new book reading patrons is still growing, just slowly. And many are coming via audiobooks and ebooks, numbers which are reflected in our circulation stats but maybe not in the door counts.

Despite the fact that fewer people are reading for pleasure on a daily basis overall, we have all seen an increase in the conversation around books. Places like BookTok and Bookstagram are popular follows even from those who don't ever read the books mentioned. It is a cool follow.

Also garnering a lot of headlines recently is the new video game Tiny Bookshop .  It is a cozy game where you run a book shop in a small town and suggest books to your customers. 

So it appears talking about books is very popular. It is the taking the time to read them that is not.

What does this mean for us at the library? Well first, the library will continue to be the place where people come as they find time to read, even after long absences. We see this all of the time. Because we have the books and they don't need to pay more than they have already contributed with their taxes to access them, it is a great way for people to try reading again. There is a low barrier to access.

So when people want to try reading, we are there for them. We need to remember that.

Second, we need to be better about joining in the larger community conversations about books. I write about this all the time and give you examples, whether it anticipating trends and having a display there before people ask or encouraging you to bridge the physical virtual divide or just reminding you to start conversations all the time and every where. The more interactive our service to readers is, the more chance people will come back to the library (and reading) and tell a friend.

I am not as pessimistic as others about the study because I see how well we are doing to start conversations around books and reading at the library. Seeing BookTok make old titles bestsellers and knowing that many of those books were ready and waiting on library shelves as book stores were scrambling to get some in stock-- this shows me things are going to be okay.

And now a video game where basically your goal is to be a readers advisor! 

There are enough signs that things are not as bleak as they seem. Let's embrace the places where people outside our bookish world are talking about books and remind them to come visit us to find their next great read. And especially, to invite them to come back to re-discover the joy of a great book.

The Power of the Local Public Library: What Dan Read

Below I am finally getting to amplifying a story I have had a note to cover in my drafts folder for a few weeks. Many of you have probably already seen it, but it is too important to not promote.

It is the story of Dan Pelzer. I first read about Mr Pelzer on July 26th in this NYT article (gift link). He read 3,599 books and kept a list with comments. AND he got the majority of them from the public library. His kids uploaded his list so everyone could see "What Dan Read." The site is a tribute to their father, his love of reading, and the Whitehall branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library.

What I love about this story is not only how important the library was to Mr Pelzer, but how much the library is embracing him back. 

We really cannot fathom how much we are impacting our patrons' lives by helping their find leisure reads. Too often we think our value is tied to how we help them access information that they need, but in reality, it is the work we do for their wants, the little things we do to make people's lives more enjoyable, that really matter.

Below is a recent story from Shelf Awareness all about Mr Pelzer with links and pictures of the display the library made in his honor. Everyone can get in on the fun though. The What Dan Read website has gone viral. You can join in on the fun as well. 

Robert Gray: Keeping Up with 'What Dan Read'

I've always felt like an underachiever as a reader when measured by volume. Twenty years ago, I confessed my slow reading habits in a blog post about ARCs ("I'm Reading as Fast as I Can!!"), noting that although I had increased my reading speed somewhat--out of professional necessity--during the first 13 years I'd been a frontline bookseller, I still felt like a biblio-laggard.

Strangely, though, "my customers think I'm a reading machine," I wrote then. "They will sometimes ask, with unmasked awe, 'How many books do you read per week?' It's as if they think I've become some kind of Electrolux, devouring pages as fast as they come off the printing press. The truth is more mundane.... 

"Often I have three, four, or five books going at once, and continue to cast my eyes with hunger and longing at the endless stream of new and tempting titles that come across my desk. And I often just graze, reading 50 pages and bailing if I'm not fully engaged. Nevertheless, the stack on my desk continues to grow at a pace that outstrips my ability to keep up. I seem to look for reasons not to continue reading, reasons to give myself a break and move on to the next title."

I've never been one of those readers who sets yearly goals or meticulously catalogues the books I've read. Before I became a bookseller, I was practically monogamous when I read. I could spend a month with a book, six months with a particular author. The pages of my books were covered with marginalia. I lived in them for long periods, then moved on, as if walking a long, narrow path rather than driving an interstate highway."

So it was with a long-gestating mixture of awe and humility that I recently learned about the extraordinary reading life of Dan Pelzer, who died at the age of 92 on July 1. He logged all 3,599 of the books he had read since 1962, when "he first began jotting his reads down on his language class work sheets while stationed in Nepal with the Peace Corps, to 2023, when his eyesight failed him and he could no longer read," the New York Times reported. 

Most of his books came from the Whitehall Branch of the Columbus, Ohio, Metropolitan Library, which posted on Facebook a message from his daughter, Marci Pelzer, who noted, in part: "Nobody loved the library more than Dan. When we were little, he took us to the downtown library every Saturday morning and enrolled us in every summer reading program. He was a regular at the Livingston and then Whitehall branches until he could no longer read. I'm sure he would be among your highest circulation and longest term borrowers."

She had considered printing his reading list to distribute at the funeral, but it was too long and ultimately she asked her godson create a website featuring What Dan Read, a digitiized version of the handwritten list that guests could access through a QR code on the back of the funeral program. 

The library has since created book displays in his honor at the Whitehall Branch and at Main Library. Lauren Hagan, CEO of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, said a team of about six people at the library were re-creating Pelzer's list online so that it could be used by other patrons.

What Dan Read has since gone viral. Recently, Marci Pelzer told WBNS: "You know, I just keep thinking about how crazy it is that we've spread the list to so many people. Our intention was to hand it out at his funeral. Then, we got the idea to have a QR code. Then, I put it on LinkedIn and it kind of took off and then when the library got a hold of it, it just went crazy.... It's amazing. It's like the dialogue with him about books can continue indefinitely and spread around the globe."

At the Columbus Library

In 2006, a Columbus Dispatch feature explored Dan Pelzer's devotion to reading, noting that he "was making his way through roughly 80 books a year. He had recently read James Joyce's Ulysses, and he wasn't afraid to tell the journalist what he really thought. 'The worst,' he said. 'Pure torture.' " Still, Pelzer finished reading the classic novel because he finished reading every book he started. "Even the books that were dogs, he would slog through to the final page," the Dispatch noted.

When I wrote that blog post mentioned above in 2005, I had just returned home from BookExpo, where I had once again been showered with gifts in the form of ARCs and "now, a new mound of guilt towers above me at this desk. I did not grab them off stacks on a mad locust tour of the show floor. These were nearly all given to me personally by publishers, editors, or authors, who each time handed me the most precious gift they had to give: their work, their life, their hope. I do not have a vested interest in any of the titles that come my way until I read and love them."

I asked myself then: "When will I read all these galleys? Can I read them all? Will I read yours? Maybe, maybe not. But, rest assured that, within the considerable limitations of my ability, time, and attention span, I'll be reading as fast as I can."

I'm no Dan Pelzer though.

--Robert Gray, contributing editor

It's Hot Outside, So Put Up Some "Chilling Reads" Displays

It is very hot outside in a lot of places. 

Thanks, Becky, for stating the obvious.

Look, I know it is obvious but are you scrapping whatever planned displays you have up right now (big or small) to help your patrons deal with it? We do this when an author dies, so don't tell me you don't react to current events with your displays.

When you put up displays that show your patrons that you are flexible and reacting to what is happening, they pay more attention. They see that you understand them and are ready to help them. You are showing them you are thinking of their needs over all else.

So we need to put up some "Chilling Reads for Hot Days" displays ASAP. BUT (and it is in all caps for a reason, this is a bog BUT), do not just put out books set in the old and/or snow. 

No, we need to think broadly about what makes something a "chilling" read:

• Cold and winter setting books
• Genres that thrill and chill-- thriller, suspense, psychological suspense, and horror
• If you can include nonfiction-- paranormal investigations, adventure in cold places, true crime

You can find all of these titles using your own catalog by searching for keywords and/or genre tags. I promise you, you will not run out of title options. 

Think broadly, mix up genres, and do not include those big name authors (your patrons know those books and our displays should promote the books people cannot find without our help). This is also an easy display to make diverse because the barrier for entry to be included on this display is so low.

Now, if you do not have one big display space, make a bunch of small signs that say. "Chilling Reads for Hot Days" or just "Chilling Reads." And spread the titles out wherever you have space. Just make sure you have mixed up the options. 

The key here is to stop thinking so literally with your displays. "Chilling" is not just cold. Lots of things give people chills and you are serving lots of people. The more definitions of "chilling" you have, the broader your display options are. The broader your titles on that display, the more readers who will look at it and find something for them. The more people who find something for them on one of your displays, the  more people who feel the library "gets" them. They will return. They will tell their friends.

You can take it one step further and make the display interactive by using my Conversation Starter to Display post/handout.

Add a question at your display, at every service desk (because this is an all ages questions, even the AV area can participate), in your online spaces, and put a bookmark with it in every books on the hold shelf (again details on how to do this is here).

Ask people, "What is your favorite 'chilling' read?" The key to all successful conversation starter to display questions is to make them as broad as possible so as to encourage a wide range of results that represent the wide range of readers who use your buildings (not just those who use it the most often). And if your examples are broad, then their answers will be too.

So please take a deep breath. I know I just told you, on a Monday, to scrap your plans and change out the display, BUT, I promise you, it will be worth it. Everyone coming in will be hot, and to see this display in the library will ring very true with their current experience. They will feel a connection to you even if they do not stop to check one of the the titles out.

Please make sure you have this display in every service area, so the whole family can enjoy their favorite chilling reads for hot days.

EveryLibrary Institute's Free Report on Censorship Acceleration

As the library world is preparing for the 2025 ALA Annual Conference (beginning Friday), the EveryLibrary Institute released a FREE and compressive report on the state of censorship in libraries since 2020.  Below I have reposted the introduction to the report (found here) which includes the key takeaways and has access to the form you can fill out to receive the full PDF report. 

Please do not ignore this post. Read the report, but remember, as the final point below says-- urgent advocacy is required. Feel free to use the information from my Keynote at the Bram Stoker Awards to help talk to you patrons about the support you need from them. 

Make the choice to be informed on the state of book bans at this current moment by clicking here. The tide is shifting from parental groups to political and religious groups leading the banning charge, but resistance is also increasing. We are at a point where the scales are going to tip on way or another, and quite frankly, I am not sure which way they will tip. But what I do know is, once the tip away from intellectual freedom, it is going to be VERY hard to get those rights back.

REPORT: The Censorship Acceleration - An Analysis of Book Ban Trends After 2020

Censorship in libraries is not slowing down or hitting a plateau. It’s actually speeding up as we move into the first year of the second Trump Administration. In "The Censorship Acceleration", author and researcher Marianne Wood Forrest provides an in-depth analysis of how coordinated political, ideological, and religious forces have transformed the censorship landscape in America since 2020.

Drawing on original research, expert analysis, and the latest data, this report highlights how book bans have evolved from isolated parental concerns into a comprehensive political strategy aimed at undermining public education, silencing marginalized voices, and promoting a national agenda of school privatization.

The report examines the rise of well-funded “parental rights” groups, such as Moms for Liberty, and the use of censorship as a tactic in the broader culture war. It charts the shifting strategies, language, and power dynamics associated with this new wave of book bans. Additionally, it discusses the concerning impact of Project 2025 policies on federal education and library funding, emphasizing that the struggle for intellectual freedom is now closely linked to the fight for democracy itself.

Key Takeaways in the Report:

• Book bans are increasingly motivated by powerful political and religious groups rather than by local parental concerns.
• Censorship campaigns are closely connected to school privatization and efforts against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
• Coordinated campaigns are nationalizing what were previously local conflicts within school boards.
• Resistance is growing, particularly from student-led movements and states passing right-to-read legislation.
• The future of libraries, education, and civil liberties is at a critical juncture and requires urgent advocacy.

The Censorship Acceleration Report reframes the narrative surrounding book bans by linking the culture war to the privatization of public education and the erosion of essential democratic institutions. Whether you are a librarian, educator, journalist, policymaker, or concerned citizen, this report provides the necessary context and clarity to understand and respond to these escalating threats.

Please sign up on this page to download the full report now

U.S. Book Show Recap

Earlier this week, Publisher's Weekly presented the US Book Show in NYC. From the FAQ page for the event: 

In its fifth year, the U.S. Book show is an in-person conference for publishing professionals. The conference will feature rich panels and discussions around issues impacting the industry. By design, there will be plenty of time to network during the day with an end-of-day networking reception planned.

Click here to see the full schedule of the topics explored and the speakers included.

PW had two detailed reports on the show:

• U.S. Book Show 2025: The State of Book Businesses Past, Present, and Future
• U.S. Book Show 2025: AI Looms Large Across Publishing Sectors

Now why I am posting about this event that already happened? Well, as we are all about to have the American Library Association conference later this month, I think it is important to be aware of what our cohorts in the publishing world are talking about at their meetings. We overlap in many important ways, and seeing their concerns and reading reports on what they discussed, only helps us to understand their side of our shared equation.

There is a lot of useful information for those of us who serve readers at the library in those reports. It is like a crash course in the biggest issues in book publishing right now.

Take a moment at the end of your week to catch up on the issues that were discussed at the U.S. Book Show. This is an easy opportunity to see things from the publisher side.

Back Monday to talk about all of those "Best of the year so far" lists.

Pride Month is Coming: Are Your Ready via Book Riot

Celebrating Pride in 2025 is nonnegotiable (see below if you think you can't do anything at your library), but there are better ways than others to celebrate in June. Kelly Jensen over at Book Riot has you covered with an extensive article filled with best practices and tips in: How to Prepare for Pride Month in Libraries in 2025.

The article is filled with information, links, and real world advice, even for libraries who cannot participate without getting in trouble. Click through to read the entire piece, but to give you a sense of what to expect, it is organized into the following 7 main points:

1. Take photos of your display and/or track the books being put on it 

2. Use QR Codes/Images of Book Covers for Displays 

3. Encourage Engagement 

4. Track Your Stats 

5. Be Frank About Intellectual Freedom and the Library 

6. Be Prepared for a Challenge — and Be Transparent About Patron Rights  

7. Do No Display At All and Explain Why

Click through to read it all for free.

That number 7 is the one for all of you who think you cannot do anything. Again, it is nonnegoiatble that you do something, and sometimes doing nothing and making it clear as to why you are doing nothing is in actuality, something. Jensen explains it very well.

The article also has links to past pieces she has written about Pride; they are all worth a look. You can also see this post from 2023 by me as well.

Please do something this June. Your community-- every single person-- needs to see LGBTQ representation loudly and proudly all year long, but especially during June.