Are You Ready For Some.....Reading with the Andrew Luck Book Club

The NFL Season opens tonight and I will be in a seat at Soldier Field for the Bears-Packers game with my Father, Son, and Husband. No matter how you feel about the NFL, it is hard to argue against the fact that it brings people together.

Not only will my son get to be with his Dad and Grandfather for the night but my husband, son, and I are all in a fantasy football league together with old college friends. Relationships that persist over 25 years because of a silly game. [Side note, son was added last year when someone dropped out and he then went on to kick all of our butts.]

Many NFL players, past and present, use their affiliation with the league and their knowledge that it incites strong feelings in the fans to promote their personal causes. We see players like JJ Watt and former Bears' player Charles Tillman, [among countless others] do great things with their athletic celebrity.

But some, like the recently retired Andrew Luck, use their celebrity to promote BOOKS! And even though Luck isn't playing this season, his book club is still going. And what better way than today to remind people of it.

The Andrew Luck Book Club picks a kid book and an adult book every month, or as they call them Rookie and Veteran reads. The books are not linked, but what I love about the program is that it gets the entire family reading a book a month. The parents and kids can use their excitement about football to finds a book to read.

I also love the fact that it has been going on for a while now, so you can use this backlist to make a display or recommenced reading list. Seriously, lots of libraries will put up literal football themed displays this week, why not put up a football player inspired list to stand out? Also, these are titles most libraries already have and are probably on the shelf. Let's get those backlist titles off the shelf and into readers' hands.

There is also an interactive social media aspect to this book club which makes it fun for families or even the library to follow along.

And last,  but definitely not least, because it is about titles for kids and adults, this is a great opportunity for Youth and Adult departments to work together. [See Becky's Basic Rules of RA Service, Rule #8].

This is a book club that will appeal to the entire family-- all ages and genders. It is also a wonderful book discovery tool for patrons who may not know where to begin.

Again, not matter how you feel about the NFL, Andrew Luck is trying to help us help readers, and I for one am willing to take advantage of his celebrity for my purposes.

Click here for all of the details on the book club, how to participate, and for the list of past books.