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Summer Tales 2022: How We Read

How do we read? With more options for reading available than ever, and with the pandemic having upended many of our familiar routines, this seems like a particularly interesting time to take stock of the role that reading plays in our lives.

The Books We Read Blog is conducting a series of interviews with contributors and friends of the blog––librarians, graduate students, and more––to get a snapshot of our reading habits: the things we like to read, the circumstances in which we read, and more.

We’re particularly interested in non-required reading, the reading people have at least some discretion over (as opposed to reading for class or for work). We’ve decided not to use the term “pleasure” or “fun” reading because we also want to know how the reading that you do feels; pleasure seems at once like too broad a category (what kind of pleasure?) and too restrictive (there are reasons one might choose to do non-pleasurable reading).

Many of us, when lamenting that we don’t read more, talk about not being able to find the time or space. Part of the goal of this series, then, is to showcase the different settings in which people are able to read––audiobooks on the commute, on the nightstand before bed, or other cracks and crevices in the day.

We also hope it can offer a kind of contagious enthusiasm, that hearing other people talk about reading reminds us of what we enjoy most about it.

Finally, if nothing else, we hope the series can provide peer-tested, word-of-mouth recommendations for your next book.

— Nick Allred


Click on the link for more on the Rutgers Recreational Reading Collection

Follow our colleagues and students as they share how they read. New interviews will be posted weekly during the entire 2022 Summer Session as part of #SummerTales2022.

  1. Books = Comfort, by Stephanie Bartz, Government Resources and Information Services Librarian, Alexander Library (6/02/2022)
  2. Sense-Making, by Sherri Farber, Information Literacy Instruction Librarian, Alexander Library, author of the Summer Session Research Guide (6/09/2022)
  3. Lots of Laughs, by Rose Barbalace, Library Supervisor II and Student Coordinator for the NBL work/study students, Alexander Library (6/16/2022)
  4. Points of View, by Kate Greenberg, SC&I Graduate Assistant, Chang Science Library and Library of Science and Medicine (6/23/2022)
  5. New Worlds, by Jamey Silverstein, Collection Manager of RecRead, Carr Library and Annex (6/30/2022)
  6. The Eclectic Reader, by Jill Morrow, Administrative Assistant, Carr Library (7/7/2022)
  7. Reading as a Job, by Nick Allred, Graduate Specialist, Chang Library (7/14/2022)
  8. Discovering New Things, by Becky Diamond, Business Librarian, Carr Library (7/21/2022)
  9. Immersion, by Lindsey Jones, Music Graduate Assistant, Douglass Library (7/28/2022)
  10. De-Stressing, by Harmony Birch, SC&I Graduate Assistant, Alexander Library (8/4/2022)
  11. Learning Constantly, by Meredith Parker, Science Reference and Instruction Librarian, Library of Science and Medicine (8/11/2022)
  12. Perspectives, by Judit H. Ward, Science Reference and Instruction Librarian, Chang Library (8/18/2022)