I had to write a biographical sketch for school on a figure in the library world, and I chose Nancy Pearl. What a cool woman. Nancy was the director of the Seattle Public Library and has written books on reader's advisory. She calls herself a promiscuous reader and I think that is a noble form of promiscuity. Her rule of 50 is such: Give a book 50 pages and if you don't like it, don't continue. If you are over the age of 50, subtract your age from 100 and that is how many pages you should read before deciding to continue. I like this idea. I also think that if you've had a library book out for months and months and haven't been reading it, it's obviously not engaging you, so return it. I have many books begun but they're jut sitting there with their bookmarks in them. I'm in school, but I've had these books out since waaaaay before then, so I can't use that as an excuse. Even reading a page a day is doable, but I'm just not. So I will be reading more promiscuously from now on.
Also, Nancy is the model for novelty store Archie McPhee's librarian action figure. I myself own the deluxe model.
More about Nancy Pearl.
Ex libris,
Marissa
