pods, jude and books galore

mark dapin and I in the pod

Last tuesday and wednesday at the library we had an outdoor reading room. Well we would have if the weather hadn't been so inclement. So the reading room got moved inside. At 9am on Tuesday morning it looked fab and all we needed was the people.

the reading room ready for readers

Why have a reading room at the library? It's part of a campaign that is run every year to promote literacy in Australia. It was called Books Alive and is now called Get Reading and there's a free booklet that is produced with '50 books that you can't put down'. This always creates some interest/heated discussion amongst readers about the choices, but I'm still not sure if it hooks the non readers. You can also get a free book if you buy one of the fifty and this year they started doing outdoor reading rooms starting in Sydney, Brisvegas and um...Wagga.

the lovely Amy - so clever to match her shoes to the pod

They had bookshelves with the books as well as groovy chairs (love the pod chairs) tables and throw rugs. It's a great idea but sadly not many people turned up (come on people of wagga get off your substantial asses and do something).

some of the books - vampires featured prominently (sigh)

Even an appearance by Judy Nunn, author and actress, failed to attract many people, though one woman upon hearing her on the local ABC (also broadcasting from the reading room) ran the whole way from her house. I'm hoping it was close but am not sure - she was very puffed and just panted at Judy and waved one of her books at her to sign. Judy was very patient, doing interviews on air and posing for photos. Then after our can can lineup photo she took off for another author event.

my t-shirt: get hooked - Amy's get fresh - luckily we didn't score the get comfy one

Even though we didn't get as many members of the public as we would have liked staff made good use of the facilities and the free coffee (mmm...chai).

Jeannie using the RR - pretty sure Barry the Fish with
Fingers was not one of the fifty books but maybe it should be