Book lovers: What are you reading? Share it in Manitowoc library book discussion

Therese Horstketter
For USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
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Hello again from Manitowoc Public Library!

It’s a beautiful fall day, and I’m here to discuss book discussions for adults.

For many years, we have had monthly evening adult book discussions, and last year we added a morning monthly book discussion. The staff member leading the discussion is usually the person who selected the book for one reason or another.

Since COVID-19 restrictions have brought our book discussions to a halt, our staff has really been missing them. Most of us are avid readers and discuss books in passing, both to recommend to each other for casual reading and also to share with our patrons as suggestions for book groups to delve into.

At these book discussions, we’ve had some amazing conversations — and not always about the books! We’ve had people cheering for the bad guys, disagreeing on who the real bad guys were, and feeling that some titles left us with too many questions and not enough conclusions.

Then, we have the books that we love. With these there’s not a lot of disagreement and, therefore, not as much to discuss. But we always manage to fill the hour or exceed our discussion time.

Manitowoc Public Library is planning a book discussion on Zoom for Oct. 13.

Like the majority of hairstylists and bartenders, we really enjoy that chatting is a big part of our job. Almost without fail, every book has brought about personal comments and sharing of personal events or recollections of times in someone’s life that came back to them with the reading of that month’s book.

Last year, we took a slightly different approach with one of the morning book discussions that I’ve always wanted to do — we didn’t read and discuss a specific book. Rather, everyone brought in books that they really enjoyed or were currently reading that they thought were worthy of a mention. This was a really nice discussion, and attendees took home many great ideas for things to read.

We are going to do this same kind of discussion this October. Staff will be presenting books that they’ve selected and we hope readers in our community will contribute some title ideas of their own.

As nearly all of MPL’s in-person programming has been cancelled because of COV-19 restrictions and safety measures, online programming and events have become the norm rather than the exception.

We’re going to be presenting this book discussion for adults on the Zoom platform. It will be taking place on at 11 a.m. Oct. 13. You’re going to need to register for this event. Once you do that, you’ll get an invitation to join us. You can use your PC, iPad, tablet or smartphone. Really, any device that has a microphone and a camera.

We expect the discussion to run about 45 minutes. Sign-up opened on Oct. 1 on the Event Calendar on our website (www.manitowoclibrary.org) and will be closing at 4 p.m. on Oct. 9.

So, grab some paper and start jotting down a list of books you love and books that you’re reading and enjoying. Is there a book you’ve loved so much that you wish it could be a new book all over again for you to read for the first time? Is there a book you read yearly, not necessarily during the holidays? If so, this is the type of book discussion that you’ve been waiting for!

I hope you can join us for this discussion. From one book lover to another, what are you reading these days?

Therese Horstketter is public services associate at Manitowoc Public Library.

Therese Horstketter

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