The View From Circulation - What's Trending, Unique, & Informational

photo credits from quotesgram.com Have you ever stepped into a world of fantasy and magic with just enough of realism that you can almost believe it could be possible? I'm sure most of us have at some point in our lives. From childhood through our adult years books about knights in shining armor, dragons, mermaids, time travel, and magic have pulled us in to alternative realities. Harry Potter fans can easily imagine stepping through the wall at King's Cross Station. Me? Give me a good historical fiction or detective mystery. Something that is rooted in facts and lays out a well woven plot where dots can easily be connected or even foreseen. I'm not one who will easily choose a Science Fiction or Fantasy book off the shelves, but once in a while I come across a book, either by recommendation or through my book club selections, that completely engages and surprises me. Recently highlighted in an email I received from Penguin Books titled "Cozy Up with the...

Do you already have a large list of books to read in 2019? 'The goal setting season is upon us and I hope in that list all of us are incorporating time in your day for reading or listening to a book. Last year I started a new practice of listening to audio books when I walked the dog or while in the car. Many hours were productively passed while I enjoyed a number of books I would not have had time to read and some that I probably enjoyed more because of the storytelling talents of the narrators. I also tried to be more intentional about picking up a book to read versus logging on to social media or email, thus, reduced the hours we can sometimes lose on the computer and enriched my perspectives through a good book instead. I have to say I read a lot of good books in 2018 helped by culling my reading selections based on your recommendations, recommended reads from various book review sources and previewed selections by the Duxbury Library Staff.  Perusing my Goodreads li...

Reading soothes, entertains, humors, educates, thrills, and through them we travel to foreign places, and the past. Through reading we learn to empathize, relate, draw parallels with the human condition, and most of all widen our perception of the world around us. Different from the visual media-based culture that is encompassing our lives, books provide us a mechanism to combine our previous perceptions and knowledge with new ideas and character stories easing us into expanding those ideas and perceptions. Alternatively, the visual media-based outlets spend a lot of time and money figuring out how to “market” to you to keep you watching. The wonderful, but sometimes overwhelming, pleasure of working behind the circulation desk is seeing so many books that have the ability to expand my world view, challenge me, and even sometimes "touch a nerve". Through reading each of us can walk away gaining something different from the same book. The National Book Foundation su...

How many of us have come into our libraries and asked,"Can you tell me how to find a book that was recommended to me and I heard everyone is reading.".   Subsequently you are disappointed when told there are 50+ people already waiting for one of the copies available in the network.   Perhaps you are about to embark on that long awaited and much needed vacation and want to take a great read. You come into the library and can't think of anything based on author or title and don't know what to pick. The library is a great place to just browse and choose one or multiple books off the shelves, take them home, and not worry if they grab our interest because we can just put it down and read the next one. However, in our hurried world, we often have little patience to spend reading the first 50 pages of a book to see if we like it. Also, our free time is so valuable we are hesitant to make a selection other than based on recommendations.  "Please, just ...

Duxbury Library not only carries your summer reading enjoyment,  but is also your  one-stop unplug activity hub. During the past year we have been acquiring activity kits based on a variety of interests and for all ages. Discovery activities include Tide Pool Discovery Kit perfect for beach exploration , croquet in your back yard, or our assortment of robotic and science technology kits in our children's library.  We have a number of robotic kits. Come in and check out all of our education toys, such as,  Sphero - A Round Robot you can control wirelessly through your digital device (for ages 8 and up), See it in action . Another popular item is  Dash   is a robot which responds to voice, navigates objects, dances, and sings (for ages 6 and up).    See it in action. Start up a game of croquet or pickleball with our sports kits that have everything you need. Fun hobby kits include: arts and crafts like learn to crochet,...

This week brings us into July with beach trips, road trips, camping trips, and enjoying our national parks. Looking for books set in your destinations (or to daydream)? Through the month of July and August we are selecting favorites and displaying them in the "Reader's Challenge" bookshelf across from the circulation desk. Authors Nancy Thayer and Elin Hildebrand will transport you to Nantucket.  Traveling to Maine? Enjoy mysteries by Linda Greenlaw (America's famous woman Swordfishing captain). The variety of displayed selections will transport you all over the United States and will change throughout the summer. Looking for ebooks to download set throughout the United Status check out this list "The Most Famous Book Set in the United States" published by Business Insider. Does your selection have a hold list? Don't forget Duxbury library code holders can check out books in the Sails Library Network and Minuteman Library Network. ...

The June Library Reads newsletter Top 10 Books Librarians Love   mentions a number of new releases by popular authors, such as, B.A. Paris , Anthony Horowitz,  and the sequel to Fredrik Bachman's Beartown. Working behind the circulation desk we are often asked for reading recommendations. We have "Patron Picks" and "Staff Picks" that are readily available for check out and we change out these selections regularly. What are we reading? Probably no different that what you are reading - our best sources are our patron recommendations. With an endless stream of books new and old being passed through our hands on a given day we are always on the lookout for repetitive checkouts and transit items. Unfortunately, our online "hottest holds" often has books that are on order and not available for release. Elin Hildebrand 's latest "The Perfect Couple" has been on order and available for holds since February and has been on our "ho...