eBranch Blog

August 28, 2007

Over 1000 Participate in HCPL's First Adult Summer Reading Program

The dog days of summer are drawing to a close. This year, kids aren?t the only ones who can talk about what they did over their summer vacations. Over 1,000 adults participated in the first ever Adult Summer Reading Program in Harris County.

Harris County Public Library and local Barnes and Noble bookstore locations hosted the program. Participants who read or listened to three books during the summer were eligible to win a Barnes and Noble gift card. The gift cards were purchased by the Harris County Public Library Friends Council.

Drawings for a $20 Barnes and Noble gift card were held at all twenty-six Harris County Public Library branches and participating Barnes and Noble locations. A grand prize winner was drawn from all those completing the program. Seabrook library customer, Veronica Nadalin from Evelyn Meador Branch Library, won the grand prize of a $150 Barnes and Noble gift card. The gift card will come in handy, since Veronica will be entering her sophomore year at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches later this month. Veronica just happens to be an English major! ?It was nice to have the Adult Summer Reading Program because I?ve always participated in the Children?s Summer Reading Program since I was little, and it?s good to be able to continue to participate in the reading program as an adult. This was the easiest $150 I ever made and for doing something I love?reading!? Veronica aspires to a career in writing as the author of children?s stories or as a journalist. Her favorite genres of books include science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, and gothic novels, but she still reads some young adult titles to get ideas for her own writings. Due to her love of reading, Veronica has volunteered at the library since her junior year in high school.

?This has been such a successful program,? Interim Library Director Rhoda Goldberg stated. ?The Adult Summer Reading Program is an opportunity to get adults involved in reading, not just kids and teens. Our grand prize winner participated in the Teen Summer Reading Program in 2006, which would have been her last reading program, had it not been for the beginning of the Library?s Adult Summer Reading Program this summer.?