Here is a chance to build Olympians. Fred Zimny from USA Luge conducts Slider Searches. The NGB (National Governing Body) has waived the $15 registration fee making it free to CBOs. Info packets went down to the local level.
Encourage and check with your local administrators and push this
effort, now free. We can pick up some amazing talent with these recruiting
programs.
In regard to the recent National Endowment for the Arts report on the decline in leisure readers ("Americans Are Reading Less and Less," July 9 and "Read Me," July 20 editorial), two important factors have been overlooked: reader savvy and publisher oblivion to what readers want -- good stories featuring characters they care about.
In their drive to force their established authors to produce more product more quickly, and their push for "the next John Grisham," publishers have been blindsided by the phenomenal success of unusual best sellers with exceptional plot (Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code"), characterization (Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones"), charm (Jan Karon's "Mitford" series and Sue Monk Kidd's "The Secret Life of Bees"), common-sense humor (Alexander McCall Smith's "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series and Ann B. Ross' "Miss Julia" series) or overall storytelling (J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" children's series).
No longer do so many people get taken in by flashy marketing and dole out $26 or more for the latest Stephen King, Danielle Steel or Anne Rice, only to discover their latest is "just like very other book they wrote, but the characters' names are changed." And discriminating readers are increasingly more likely to rely on the recommendations by their friends or by the ratings from other readers on sites such as Amazon.com.
So to publishers I say: Give the unique, the quirky, the wacko, the quaint authors a chance. And while you're at it, get rid of the extraneous swearing. People hate it.
To jaded readers I say: At the risk of sounding like a library shill (which I am), check out your local library. Try before you buy; you won't feel robbed by a disappointing book you didn't have to pay for. Ask the librarian for book recommendations, sit in on one of the library's book discussion groups or participate in the adult-reader incentive programs such as "reader raffles" in which patrons receive a free entry for each book they read.
To the NEA I say: Next time, please include nonfiction as "leisure" reading. Just look at the exponential success of recent well-written and enjoyable biographies by David McCullough and Walter Isaacson, numerous World War II accounts and the current political offerings ranging from Sean Hannity to Michael Moore.
And to everyone I say: Don't write off reading!
ANN M. LITZ
Adult Programmer
Community Library of Allegheny Valley
Natrona Heights
