Making the Most of Your Local Library

We're continually learning, and it's important that we have access to information that will both educate us and guide us in becoming active members of the global community. 【小题1】 Below are several that we can make the most of the library in our neighborhood.   

• Appoint a Library Day

Choose one day per week to visit our favorite library branch to better explore our community. 【小题2】 And it'll keep us reading and learning about things that interest us. Independent learning is important to a person's development, and a library day will allow our time to further investigate the topics in which they are most interested.

•Get Involved in Library Programs

【小题3】 From book clubs to reading hours, these programs encourage us to read, to learn, and to get involved. Talk to the librarians to learn more about these programs. If our local library team is open to it, we may even propose a program that they would be interested in, and help to get it up and running. Taking this type of plan is a great learning experience. 【小题4】

•Create Goals for You to Reach

This is a particularly good approach during the summer when we have more time to spend reading. Set a goal of a certain number of books. 【小题5】 Or speak with the librarians to build a book list that will keep our minds engaged over the summer.

People who seek comfort by pouring their hearts out in Courtney’s office don’t get rewarded with an Xanax or Prozac prescription (处方). Instead, they walk away with a reading list of some fictions.

Such fictions as To Kill a Mockingbird and The Color Purple teach you complicated topics like racism, poverty, bullying and other issues. They could also help you know your own heart and others’. Keith Oatley, a psychology professor at Toronto University, recommends novels that help us understand the characters from the inside rather than plot—driven novels. We can learn from a literary masterpiece, such as Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, or from popular fictions such as Harry Potter. Spending quality time with these characters as you relax on the beach or sit propped up on bed pillows may enhance your EQ (emotional intelligence).

Lab tests seem to show this. Brain scans of people who have been reading fictions show the area that corresponds with emotion lights up. Even if you are not a keen reader, there’s still hope. Past studies have shown serial TV programs that are character driven such as The West Wing or The Good Wife also help you better understand what we human beings are up to. Other studies have shown watching character-driven sitcoms can lessen a viewer’s prejudice.

You can be as witty as Sherlock, but to get along well in this life, you really do need to understand people emotionally. And you can’t be as emotionally unavailable as Mr. Darcy throughout much of Pride and Prejudice. You have to learn the lesson Jane Austen is trying to teach with that book. Kieth said, “To love people, you really have to know them.” People say you only get one life, but I say read fictions and you can live many lives in one.

I was always a reader. As a kid, I walked to the library several times a week and stayed up late reading with a torch. I did my undergraduate degree in English and went on to get a master’s in literature. When I created my online profile, I made my screen name “missbibliophile”. Filling out the “favorite books” section, I let my taste in literature speak for me: One Hundred Years of Solitude, A Moveable Feast, White Teeth, The Namesake, The Known World.

But I realized it had been more than two years since I had read most of those titles. I had stopped reading gradually, the way one heals or dies.

David was my online friend. His profile said he liked to read, so I asked him about his last book. His face lit up and his fingers danced. I told him I only read one book that year. “But it’s June. Read a book!” he said.

I was painfully aware of the glaring hypocrisy (虚伪) in my life. I defended the virtues of bookstores in the age of online retailing and bought books, and they sat on every surface until my house appeared to wear books the way one wears clothes.

His suggestion on “reading a book” echoed in my head. One afternoon, I picked up one I’d bought only for its poetic title. I had a hard time getting into it. Whenever I was tempted to give up on it, I thought of David. I pushed through the first two chapters and discovered a new narrator and I loved the alternating points of view. I read at lunch and on my walk home, occasionally lifting my eyes to avoid strangers and uneven road surface. I stayed up late and finished the book.

I felt great and proud of myself. The last time I’d pulled an all-nighter to read, I was 12. I felt him pushing me to be more of the person I used to be and more of who I wanted to be.