As we traveled around the U.S. reporting on the development of towns and cities, we always made the local library an early stop. The traditional impression of libraries as places for quiet reading, research, and borrowing books is outdated. There are three areas where libraries work as energetic centers of America’s towns: technology, education, and community.

Many people rely on libraries for their computer and Internet use. According to a 2015 Pew Research Center report, more than a quarter of Americans who had visited a public library in the past year had used a computer, the Internet, or a WiFi connection there.

More ambitiously, libraries have also begun offering “makerspaces” shared workspaces that provide technological tools and are designed to facilitate teamwork. I recently toured the makerspace at Washington, D.C.’s flagship Martin Luther King Jr. Library. A group of hobbyists, businesspeople, and a mom with her homeschooled preteens were learning about tools like 3-D printers, laser cutters, and wire benders. Miguel Figueroa, who directs the Center for the Future of Libraries at the American Library Association, says makerspaces are part of libraries’ expanded mission to be places where people can not only consume knowledge, but create new knowledge.

In my conversations with librarians around the country, the most urgent topic was the education of America’s youngest children. Patrick Losinski, the CEO of the Columbus, Ohio, metropolitan library system, told me that when a 5-year-old walks into kindergarten, takes a book, and holds it upside down, “you know there is no reading readiness there.” I heard of many projects like Books for Babies, which is run by Friends of the Library in tiny Winters, California: Volunteers offer new babies a box with a T-shirt, a cap, two books, and an application to join the library.

In Charleston, West Virginia, despite recent funding losses that severely cut library staff, librarians still provide materials to teachers all across the 900-square-mile county. In Columbus, Mississippi, the library gives high-school students access to Civic War-era documents slave sale records, court cases, and secrets of the community making real the history of their state.

The library in West Hartford, Connecticut, offers conversational-English classes for immigrants. The library in Seattle provides citizenship classes. The library in Duluth, Minnesota, has a seed-lending program for local gardeners. In libraries, I have practiced yoga, drunk in coffee shops, and watched youngsters with laptops arrangetheir virtual start-up offices at long reading-room tables.

Here are some new books you may be interested in.

The Dream of Life by Philip Walker tells the unique and magical story of a girl and her mother living in a small room with no windows. The space between the walls of the room was actually all the girl knew because she had been born there. It’ll shock you, grieve you, and finally make you happy when you finish it. Attracted from the start, all kinds of readers don’t want to put it down.

◆Published in October 2022

◆Publisher: University College of London Press

The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa is the first novel that will take readers through the major events of the 20th century through three families. Much of its action is centered on World War II. Although it’s more than 700 pages long and has many characters, the stories are very closely connected.

◆Published in August 2022

◆Publisher: Imperial College London Press

The fiction master Tony Morrison returns with The Homecoming, a novel about a world-famous scientist. It is an interesting story, totally out of the ordinary, as good as anything a writer has ever written. Newly married people can learn much from the book.

◆Published in April 2022

◆Publisher: Oxford University Press

Kelteas Imley’s new work, The Invisible Fate, was an international best seller before its UK release in July. While it’s well written and sometimes funny, don’t be fooled-it’s not a feel-good romantic comedy. If you decide to read it, be prepared for some heavy moments.

◆Published in July 2022

◆Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Do you know that a fast reader can get the ideas better than a slow reader can? Of course, you save time by reading fast, but this is not the main reason for fast reading. The main reason is that you understand better what you are reading when you read fast.

As your eyes move along the lines of print, they make fixation(注视) or pauses stop. It is important that you see several words at a fixation. It is also important that your eyes leave a group of words quickly and move on to another group. The number of letters or words that you see at a fixation is called your eye span. Pay more attention to improving your rate(率) of reading. With practice, you can learn to read faster than you usually read.

The way in which you read always depends on what you are reading and for what purpose. You should know the different ways of reading so that you can use whatever method is necessary. Here are four ways of reading:

(1) Skimming is an important kind of reading. This method can be used when you wish to review something that you have forgotten. You can skim to get the main points.

(2) Rapid(快速的) first reading and then rereading certain parts carefully is important. You may use this type of reading to study a science lesson or a history lesson.

(3) You need to do careful reading and rereading sometimes. This type of reading is necessary for making an intensive(专心) study of your school subjects, solving maths problems or reading directions.

(4) Rapid reading is used when reading stories for enjoyment. You may also do rapid reading when reviewing materials that you already know well.