Just Keep Reading

Summer library programs are winding down.  Next week beginning on Wednesday, participants may turn in their reading calendars for prizes at all library locations.  We are showing "The King's Speech" at Epworth Branch at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday the 28th.  We have one more armchair traveling program on India scheduled for Saturday, August 13th at the Asbury Eagles Club at 2:30 p.m. 

We take a programming break as August arrives.  But you don't have to stop coming to the library.  There are still lots of stories to discover.  We are here for you all over Dubuque County.

I was listening to Wisconsin public radio yesterday afternoon. They have been doing a series called the "sounds of summer."  These short vignettes bring back the joys of summer.  Yesterday it was the clink of ice cubes that brought back the writer's memories of sweet tea shared with her grandma in the evening on the front porch. In the days before air conditioning, keeping cool was based on how many ice cubes you consumed over the course of a hot day. 

My best summer memory is the braided rug on the living room floor of my childhood home.  I spent hours and hours lying on my tummy reading.  Occasionally when I was too underfoot, my mother would shoo me outside.  But I always returned to the familiar soft ridges of the rug.  That is where I learned what a tesseract was from "A Wrinkle in Time" and what a first kiss might be like from "Seventeenth Summer."  Reading was my travel and my adventure.  The Cedar Rapids Public Library summer library program enticed me to ride my bike to the bookmobile to redeem my carefully filled-out reading folder for wonderful prizes.  One year it was small, ceramic dinosaurs.  What more could a kid want? 

So thank you to all those parents who participated with us this summer and kept the joy of reading alive.  Thank you for bringing your children to the library for storytimes, movies, and craft programs.  And thanks to all the adults who watched movies with us, enjoyed the travel presentations from around the globe, and learned how to make a handcrafted memory book. We loved having all of you at the Dubuque County Library.  And now we are in the midst of planning for fall.  Enjoy your August and don't stop reading.

Dawn