Dear Diary

Have you ever kept a diary (or a journal, if you're a guy and think diary sounds too girly...)? I would always start out with the best intentions, faithfully writing the details of my mundane life, then would just forget about it.

But I have some old notebooks that I love to look back on. It's good to reflect back on when I was younger. Even things like lists, letters, or school assignments can take me back to certain experiences in my life.

The library has quite a few books written as journals. Books for kids, teens, and adults...and a lot of them were made into movies! Check out the list below for a few recommendations. And be inspired! There's no time like the present to take up journaling.



Adult:
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding - modern, light chick-lit
The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama - historical novel set in pre-WWII Japan
Dracula by Bram Stoker - gothic novel written through diary entries and letters

Young Adult:
The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot - series of a modern-day princess and the dramas of high school
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale - a fairy tale
Terrier by Tamora Pierce - fantasy

Kids:
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney - series for boys
Dear America & Royal Diaries - two series for girls, based on historical figures and events, written by various authors

Non-Fiction:
Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank - words of a Jewish girl in hiding during WWII
The Reagan Diaries by Ronald Reagan - daily journal written while in office
This Day in the Life by American women - 24 hours of true-life stories by modern women

Laura
On behalf of the ACL

The Freedom to Read

Happy Banned Books Week! From September 24-October 1, libraries are highlighting "the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature" (ala.org). You can read more about it here on the American Library Association's website.

Banned Books Week was created to celebrate our right to intellectual freedom. It "stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them" (ala.org).

Here is a list of the most challenged books of 2010. "Challenged," means that people who believed that these books should not be accessible to people in libraries, schools, etc, pushed for them to be removed from collections:

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
   Reasons: homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
   Reasons: offensive language, racism, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence
3. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
   Reasons: insensitivity, offensive language, racism, and sexually explicit
4. Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
   Reasons: drugs, offensive language, and sexually explicit
5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
   Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence
6. Lush, by Natasha Friend
   Reasons: drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
7. What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones
   Reasons: sexism, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
8. Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich
   Reasons: drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, and religious viewpoint
9. Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie
   Reasons:  homosexuality and sexually explicit
10. Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer
    Reasons: religious viewpoint and violence

Banned Books Week is a good time to reflect on why you read what you read. You have the marvelous freedom to walk into the library and pick up whatever book you want. No one can tell you what you can't read. You can make up your own mind, form your own convictions, and teach your children to make educated decisions.

Have you read any of the books on the list?



Laura
On behalf of the ACL

In a Hole in the Ground There Lived a Hobbit

Happy Hobbit Day!

Today, September 22nd, happens to be the birthday of both Frodo and Bilbo Baggins. They were born different years, of course, Bilbo in 2890 and Frodo in 2968.

So why not take today and celebrate hobbits? Have a Long-Awaited Party. Make sure you eat a lot, exchange gifts, play music and dance, and generally engage in merriment!

While you're at it, celebrate Tolkien! Author J.R.R. Tolkien created the world of Middle Earth, along with such inhabitants as hobbits. If you haven't ever picked up his books, why not give them a try? Escape into an adventure with elves and ents, rings and wraiths, magic and mystery.

Stop by any Lackawanna County Library to find books like The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and The Lord of the Rings series. Also check out the Lord of the Rings movies - The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be out in theaters next year.



"It was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."

Laura
On Behalf of the ACL

Did Somebody Say FREE?

I read an article in Public Libraries (at my director Leah Rudolph's recommendation!) and just had to share some good stuff with you.

This article, called "E-Books and Libraries: What's Available for Free," listed websites that offer free eBook downloads. The entire article may be found by clicking here, but if you just want a taste, here are some sites I pulled out that looked particularly helpful:

http://www.booklending.com/ and www.ebookfling.com: These websites encourage borrowing and lending eBooks. Everything is compatible with the Kindle, so that's good news for those of you who own Amazon's device that doesn't yet work with library eBooks.

http://inkmesh.com/: Inkmesh is a search engine that will allow you to search for free eBooks all over the web. It will also compare prices for you, if you're interested in purchasing. You may search by device, depending on whether you have the Kindle or the Nook, the Sony Reader or the iPhone.

http://openlibrary.org/: This site is a collection of books in various formats including eBooks that over a hundred libraries have donated. You can read online or transfer to your device.

www.clicweb.org/e-discover-home: Looking for free classic novels for your eReader? Check out this site! They advertise such timeless favorites as Pride and Prejudice, The Time Machine, and The Christmas Carol.



Laura
On behalf of the ACL

Stop. Look. Listen.

I'm the facilitator of an Afternoon Book Club at the library, and every month we read a different book. I say "read," but we always have a couple members who prefer to listen to their book.

So I get them audiobooks, and that way they can listen in the car or at home while doing something else.

Now for me, listening to audiobooks is just asking for trouble. My attention span while listening to a book is about seventeen seconds. Before I realize it, I have wandered away from the room where I have the CD player on. Or I'm driving with an audiobook playing and notice that I haven't heard the last three chapters.

Whoops.

To each his own, I say! If you can listen to your book, good for you. The Lackawanna County Library System has hundreds of circulating audiobooks, along with more online! On the same site where you can find eBooks to download, you can also find audiobooks. Click here to find books to put on your MP3 player.

Books are adventures, and however you choose to experience that adventure is up to you. It's nice to have options, isn't it?

Here are three downloadable audiobooks to try, available on our website:

-Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
-7 Steps to Fearless Speaking by Lilyan Wilder
-The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold

Laura, on behalf of the ACL

Happy Birthday, Roald Dahl!

"If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely." -Roald Dahl, The Twits

I have some very happy memories of growing up reading Roald Dahl. I couldn't get enough of the made-up words, quirky humor, nasty villains and creative plots. In the world of Roald Dahl, animals talked, peaches swelled to immense sizes, chocolate was mixed by waterfall, witches were real, and vermicious knids were a dangerous threat. Each book was imaginative and delightful. Children were the heroes, always smarter than given credit for.

Of course Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a favorite of mine. But have you heard of the sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator? And Fantastic Mr. Fox, in which I gleefully cheered on Mr. Fox as he outsmarted the wicked farmers Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. If you read The Witches, you may be so convinced by the descriptions that you start to see witches everywhere you go!

So Happy Birthday Roald Dahl! His website is loads of fun, click here to access it.

I highly recommend some of my favorite Roald Dahl books, found in the Lackawanna County Library System. Share them with the children in your life, or read them yourself! I still do. :) And check out the movies based on those books as well!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Mathilda
The Twits
James and the Giant Peach
George's Marvellous Medicine
The BFG
The Witches
...And more!

Laura
On behalf of the ACL

Did You Know... Library Events

Did you know that you can register for library events online?

The Abington Community Library offers free programs of all types for all ages. From story times for preschoolers to spontaneous debate for teens to art classes for adults, our events are chosen to best serve YOU!

Did you know we're offering a playwriting class for teens? That we have a monthly Game Night with Wii  for grades 4th-6th? That we're reading Atonement by Ian McEwan for our Afternoon Book Club this month?

Not only can you sign up for programs at our events table (directly to your left as you walk in the front doors), or by giving us a call, but you can also sign up online. Click on our website link on the left side of this blog, then "Library Events" on the list on the left at our website. Once there, scroll down to see what's going on this month, then hit "register" to confirm your attendance.

Take advantage of what your library has to offer, and check out an abundance of programs!

Guest Post: Beating the Back to School Blues

I'm excited to present our first guest post, written by one of our staff, Laura D!

As the clock raced toward midnight, she leaned back in her chair and stared at the still blank word document in front of her. I’m never going to finish this paper, she thought. I have no idea what to write and I still have two exams to study for. How am I going to get all of this done on time? Her thoughts began to race; she closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying to ease the anxious tightening in her chest.

Sound familiar? For some students, when it comes to school stress is as familiar a sensation as breathing. However, it doesn’t have to be that way; with the following suggestions, any would-be successful student can beat the back to school blues.

1. Juggling Time
 As students we live busy lives, trying to juggle assignments, activities and responsibilities while making sure our friends don’t get lost in the shuffle. That’s why an agenda book is a student’s best friend when it comes to staying organized and keeping track of what the future has planned. However, even a perfect schedule can’t help you if you don’t follow it. So, do NOT procrastinate; it may sound like a good idea at the time, but you will pay for it later.

2. Meet the Team
Getting involved in an activity in or outside of school is not just extra padding for college applications or resumes. It’s also a great way to meet new people, learn new skills and get involved in something you enjoy. After all, classes may be important, but no one can live on coursework alone.

3. Burn off the Stress
We’ve all been there. It’s the moment we’re sure that if we have to read one more line of Shakespeare or solve one more physics problem our brains are going to explode. The solution? Hit the gym or go for a run. Exercise is a great way to relieve stress, and studies have shown that regular exercise can help boost a person's mood. So put down the book and get away for a half hour; the work may look less horrifying after your break.

4. Down Time 
In the everyday rush of life, it is easy to forget that none of us are Superman and that we all need a break every now and then. So remember to set aside some time for a hobby or even just a moment for some reflection on your day. If all else fails and you really need to get away, pick up a book; there is nothing like getting lost in someone else’s life to take your mind off your own. 

Here is a list of books guaranteed to make you forget about even your worst day. All of these books can be found in the Lackawanna County Library System.

Hacking Harvard by Robin Wasserman

Wolves, Boys and Other Things that Might Kill Me by Kristen Chandler

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Jellico Road by Melina Marchetta 

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Laura D.
On Behalf of the ACL

iRead, uRead, We All Read eBooks

Everyone's downloading eBooks!

Whether you're a fan of eReaders or you prefer to stick to the traditional book, you've got to admit eBooks are popular. More and more readers are converted every day, people attracted to the ease of accessing the latest novel, enlarging text for better reading, or carrying dozens of books around in a single device.

Did you know that the Lackawanna County Library System has hundreds of books available for free download from our website? If YOU have an eReader, here's why you should check them out:

1. Have a fine problem? eBooks are returned automatically on the due date, so you don't have to worry about being late.
2. Downloads are quick, easy, and free.
3. New titles are being added all the time, including the latest novels by popular authors, classics, science fiction, mysteries, and more!
4. Even when the library is closed, you may still check out eBooks online. Downloading is available 24/7.
5. Downloading free eBooks from our site is a simple way to support your local library. Consider borrowing instead of buying!

Our library has simple, step-by-step instructions to help you download eBooks from our website and put them on your eReader. Click on the link below and let us know if you have any questions.

How to Download eBooks

To jump to our eCatalog, click here.

Note: The Amazon Kindle is currently not compatible with library downloads.

Laura, on behalf of the ACL