Top 5 for Friday - Library Reads

Today is "Love your Library Day". So it seems appropriate that our Top 5 for Friday today will be about books that are based in or around Libraries (or have Librarians as their main characters).

1. Mr Muggs the Library Cat (Dave Gunson). The National Storytime book from Wednesday has to be number one, but it is not the only Children's Picture book that relates to Libraries. One of my other favourites is Library Lion and for the rest of the list, click on this subject search link.

2. Continuing the theme of cats in the library, is Dewey, the small town library cat who touched the world by Vicky Myron. An orphan cat is stuffed into the after hours return slot at a little library in Spencer, Iowa and is adopted by the staff, the customers, the town and then the world. Dewey is branching out this year and his story will shortly arrive at Rodney Libraries in both junior fiction and picture book versions.

3. This book is overdue by Marilyn Johnson is a 2010 publication and is an anecdotal tale examining how librarians can help everyone from drowning in the digital age, find the answers to vague random questions, use their inner crystal balls to determine what the question actually is and bursts through old stereotypes. I am in the middle of reading this at the moment and am thoroughly enjoying it. But it's not jsut for librarians.

4. Large Print - An unshelved collection by Gene Ambaum & Bill Barnes. Librarians poking fun at themselves and their daily lives in cartoon format.

5. The Mobile Library series by Ian Sansom. Meet Israel who is a new librarian, ready for his first real job in Ireland. But the library is shut, 15,000 books are missing and he can't get a proper cappuccino. Through the series (available in both print and audio at Rodney Libraries), Israel travels around Ireland solving crimes, mysteries and domestic disputes in equal measure. This series has been called "hilarious and inventive".

By the way, everyone should go out and read a book in public today. As well as Library Week and Love your library day, today is BOOKQUAKE - where we want as many people as possible to get out and show their love of reading.

Ka kite.