phone: 541-754-7668 address: 227 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis, OR

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This week we are bringing you a couple of opportunities to enrich your life and consider a perspective on the state of reading in our country today. We will return with our regular features of books and music next week, but we like to keep our newsletters as short and focused as possible, so we decided to skip them this week.

But, please be assured, that new titles are arriving daily and we will catch up with them next week.

Jack

The Corvallis Area William Stafford Celebration
You Reading This, Be Ready
This Saturday - Feb. 2nd - 2 - 5 p.m.
Corvallis Benton County Library -

Schedule:
2 p.m. Writing Workshop with Beth Russell

3:15 Featured readers:
Roger Weaver, Karen Holmberg, Steve Blevans and Karelia Stetz

4:15 Open mic - read a favorite Stafford poem and/or a short one of your own that is influenced by Stafford's work - especially his poem, You Reading This, Be Ready.
Thanks to Lee Lawton and her helpers, there will be refreshments.

We hope you will consider attending the William Stafford Celebration on Saturday. These events are fun, enriching and offer an opportunity to talk with other writers. We hope to see you at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 2nd.

If you need more info, contact Linda Varsell Smith, Ann Staley or Linda Gelbrich

(Co-sponsored by Friends of the Library, Friends of William Stafford, Grass Roots Bookstore and Marys Peak Poets [chapter of the Oregon State Poetry Association])

CLICK HERE for more information

We are always looking for ways to better understand our relation to the broader world of books and the wonderful readers who nourish and support the values of independent bookselling and publishing.

Recently, we found three articles that help put the current state of reading in clearer perspective. Ursula Le Guinn's "Staying Awake" in this month's Harper's Magazine is a wake-up call for us all. And last Sunday's Oregonian announced a year-long look at the shifting trends in literacy and what it means to Oregon, "one of the most literate places in the country". And today I found an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education titled "Why Independent Bookstores Matter".

Because of the length of the articles, we are posting Ursula's article this week and the other two to follow. We would appreciate your thoughts as you read them.

CLICK HERE for full text

Reading the articles mentioned above reminded me of some projects we have been trying to organize over the last year or so. We want to share the sense of community that we feel every day as we talk with our friends and customers about what books they are passionate about.

We love to discuss why they feel a sense of security and inner peace when they look at their piles of unread books – even as they eagerly browse our shelves for another treasured addition. We know book people are a special breed and have unique ways of expressing themselves. We see it every day and want to help our patrons meet and share common interests as they learn from and inspire each other.

We will be doing a survey soon on some of our ideas, but please be thinking about ways to get together and what you would like to discuss. A few of our current ideas include:

• Bi-Monthly non-fiction book group
  
• Spiritual studies book group
  
• Informal quarterly gathering of book groups
  
• "Singles night" (with or without wine)
  
• Monthly meeting on different sections in the store
  
• Poetry readings and discussions
  
• Writing workshops
  
• Young adult and / or parent – child book group
  
• Monthly potluck, bring dish and recipe from a favorite cookbook
  
• Informal, small scale music events

We would like to choose one day a week and assign a regular week for each event. We will do a survey next week to help us narrow our choices and decide on days and times.