Last week-end was one that revolved around books and authors in a big way. It started Friday evening when Lyn and I attended a presentation by author Pam Flowers at Manawa Elementary School. Kudos are in order to Jeni Mursau and the Manawa School District administration for bringing Ms. Flowers to Manawa. Flowers is an adventurer who, along with various dogs, has raced in the Iditarod, trekked 2,500 miles across the Arctic Circle on a sled, and hiked the entire  Appalachian Trail. Flowers also writes books about her adventures, and travels all over the United States visiting schools to give presentations about her experiences, her books, and her dogs. Friday evening she talked about her trip down the Trail with her dog Ellie. Ellie's Long Walk is the book she wrote after their long adventure. Sadly, the week before Flowers and Ellie were coming to Manawa, Ellie died from Botulism poisoning after ingesting some unknown substance on a beach in Texas. Ellie lives on in Flowers' book about her and she sounds like an extraordinary dog. The Library purchased all of Flowers' books and within one hour of them getting on the shelves they were checked out. I think they will be popular for some time to come.

Saturday evening found me in Spencer, Wisconsin, by way of Marshfield, where a friend had a show of his art work at the LuCille Tack Center for the Arts. It just so happened that the Center was also hosting Michael Perry that evening and that Marshfield was a central location for several of my college friends to meet up so we could enjoy both shows together. Read more »

We like this time of year here at the Library. Of course the holidays play a part in that, especially since the Library is decorated so festively. (Thank you Elizabeth Berkholtz). But the other reason we like this time of year is because we get to read all of the "best of" book lists that come out for the year about to end. Read more »

Sunday was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. This event is so permanently etched in the collective imagination of the United States that I don't even have to explain what the "sinking of the Titanic" was. The maiden voyage of that magnificent ship ended way too short and way too tragically. Today, the events of that night and the legacies they produced still resonate with the public. So many lives were lost that cold April night and of course we now know that it didn't have to end that way. A majority of the more than 1500 people that perished that night died not from drowning, but from freezing to death in the ice cold Atlantic waters. This, while lifeboats from the ship were carrying sometimes half of their capacity. I became a little fascinated by these events when I was a young child and watched the movie "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" with Debbie Reynolds. It was at that time that my mother told me her parents were married in 1912 and that her father wanted to plan the wedding and honeymoon so that they could return on the Titanic. Her mother had other ideas, fortunately, for all of us that followed. This little tidbit, whether true or just family legend, held fast to my young imagination and so too, did the ship and its fate that cold dark night. The Titanic continues to fascinate succeeding generations as witnessed by the amount of books written for young and old on this subject.

While my reading taste falls heavily towards fiction I find myself drawn to adventure/survival stories of one kind and another. I have often pondered why this is because I am not really the adventurous type. My big adventure of the year is jumping in an icy cold lake on New Year's Day. It's all of 30 seconds. My idea of an extended adventure is taking a day hike. I once spent six days in the Appalachian Mountains backpacking during a college spring break. In those six days my girlfriend and I racked up 16 miles. I considered it an amazing feat, but most people laughed in our faces when they found out the distance we covered. So, I think I read adventure/survival stories because I'm amazed at the limits that people will push themselves to achieve a personal goal or survive a situation thrust upon them. Read more »