First the bad news: Book Lust is finished.
Now the good news: Nancy Pearl, the creator of the series of books that helps hungry readers find the right book at the right time and Library Journal’s 2011 librarian of the year, isn’t giving up her personal quest to promote literacy — and the pure joy of reading. It’s just that she has so many new channels to spread the word — her blog at www.nancypearl.com and a Twitter feed (@Nancy_Pearl) with recommendations that she updates on a regular basis.
“It’s so much fun to Twitter. I Twitter every day about a book,” Pearl told JTNews from her home in Seattle. “I think that’s an easier, maybe even more efficient way to do it.”
This woman who has spent so much time with other people’s words has also embarked upon something new: Her first novel. But Pearl is somewhat daunted by the thought of letting her own characters
“It’s much scarier,” she says. “Even though the novel that I’m working on is not autobiographical at all, it feels much more personal than the Book Lust books did…. It’s your characters and your ideas and your way of putting the words together.”
Pearl, who retired as director of the Seattle Public Library’s Center for the Book in 2004, is certainly not lacking for what to do. Aside from writing, she reads. A lot. By the time you read this, she’ll most likely have finished Scumble, the sequel to middle-grade kids’ book Savvy by Ingrid Law. And on the morning JTNews spoke with Pearl, she had completed reading a 19th-century fantasy novel by Ben Aaronovich called Midnight Riot.
“Everything is very real — it’s a mystery, but there are vampires, ghosts and werewolves, etc., who play in,” Pearl says.
Pearl also talks books on NPR, travels to various cities to train librarians and readers to help them advocate for literacy, works with students in the University of Washington’s Library and Information Sciences program.
But she’ll take a break from all of that on Sun., Jan. 30, when she’ll be the speaker at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s annual “Connections” women’s event.
Pearl offers up two books for readers looking for something Jewish: The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss by Edmund de Waal is a family history, “a wealthy Jewish banking family in the late 19th century to World War II, living in Paris,” Pearl explains. “They were as rich as the Rothschilds.”
The Nazis destroyed the family’s wealth, but its legacy, tiny Japanese carvings called netsuke, was retained by a maid and recovered after the war. De Waal is now the keeper of these treasures.
“I thought that book was wonderful,” Pearl says.
She also recommends The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, in which author Daniel Mendelsohn recounts his journey in his search for the truth about what happened to his grandfather’s brother’s family, all of whom died in the Holocaust.
Incidentally, a look at either of these two books on Amazon.com will find suggestions for other books purchased by people who purchased these —several of which can be found on Pearl’s blog. That as much as anything is a testament to Pearl’s influence in the book world — and to the people who read them.
One item Pearl will be bringing to the event is a list of 20 books, personally chosen by her, that she hopes attendees will seek out and enjoy. The list, she notes, is not limited to Jewish content or by Jewish authors.
Pearl disdains categorizations such as Jewish or African-American subject matter, for example, or specific genres, because doing so often keeps people from finding great books they might truly enjoy.
“I think that ghettoizes books,” Pearl says. “If you have your science fiction and fantasy separate from your mainstream fiction, you’re going to miss some great writers, some great books, because you’re not going to go over to the science fiction section.”
Speaking of books, Connections organizers are collecting them. Lots of them. Attendees can bring unneeded books to the event, but there are also drop-off spots around the region where anyone can donate. The Federation will donate books to Friends of the Seattle Public Library, and books with Jewish content will be given to local day schools in the Seattle area. Visit www.jewishinseattle.org/Connections for drop-off spots.
A novel approach
