My booktalk audience

My booktalk audience
Originally uploaded by zzazazz

About twice a year I go to Merrrywood, a retirement community on Park Rd, to give a half hour booktalk. I've been doing this for about five years now and I still get a little nervous before I start. It's always a challenge for me to deliver a talk to these residents and come off sounding like I know what I am talking about. I never assume to know what I am talking about but it's nice if others think so.

Having to give booktalks here has forced me to broaden my reading a bit. I can't go in there each time with my usual mixture of World War II, science fiction and baseball books. I am always on the lookout for a book that I will enjoy and that I can use for material when I go to Merrywood. Robert Harris, whose book Pompeii I loved, is a perfect example of a writer who writes books I love that I can use when booktalking.

A Twittering Library

We are trying that new social media thing. I've had a personal Twitter account for a while now. I've been having a grand old time annoying my friends with it. We decided to create an account for the Morrison Library. You can view our Twitter page here. We're trying to build an online community to interact with. We've already arranged to have some guerilla art left in the branch, recommended a CD from our collection and shared a couple of quotes with a quote lover. I hope we can get some library users to join us in our experiment.

We are also on Facebook. A lot of our Facebook entries mirror what we Twitter but we are there too if you want to be a fan. While on Facebook just do a search for Morrison Library and you should find us pretty easily.