I’ve never stopped liking kids’ books. Middle grade novels will always be my first love. Several months back I bought The Inquisitor’s Tale, and I said to myself, “why am I reading this anyway? It’s not for me, and I’m not going to share my experience of reading it with anyone, so why am I bothering? I shouldn’t be reading this stuff at this point.”
Now I’m going to have to put aside for a moment the question of how fair this was to say to myself. I don’t believe in restricting your reading based on its intended audience or what purpose there is in it. Reading is for pleasure and that’s that–is what I believe for other people, apparently. My ability to judge myself is legendary. But ANYway.
Not too long after that, a miracle happened. More than one, really. First, I got a job. I’m now working as a reference librarian at the Hopewell Branch of Mercer County Library in New Jersey. Getting this job at all feels miraculous because I’ve spent years looking for a permanent, professional, part-time job. The second miracle is that due to staffing turnover, I’m actually a Youth Services librarian. And now I have the legitimate reason I was looking for to read whatever the heck kids book I feel like.
I never needed legitimacy in order to read what I want, but maybe what I needed was a social aspect to that reading, an avenue to talk about reading and connect people with books. Now I have that opportunity and work has become a joy. I’m here on this blog to talk more about books and reading. I’m also going to talk about library programming, something I’m new to and have had more enthusiasm than success at.
Cheers!
Every Book, Every Reader 