A Million to One

Some might call odds like that a long shot, but the Cambridge Public Library system has come up a winner once again.  We loved it when Cambridge appeared at the top of Amazon's list of best read cities in America.  Who doesn't like to be NUMBER ONE? The list, however, is based on per capita sales at Amazon.com.  Frequent visitors to any of our branch libraries may have asked themselves, "What about us?  Don't we count?"  On Monday, June 27, the answer was a resounding "Yes, a million times over!"

For the first time in its history the Main Library checked out over 1,000,000 items in a single year. That's a 115% increase over the last full year.  So we asked ourselves, "Who's reading all these books?"  We feel certain that one factor contributing to the circulation success is the number of Cantabridgians who love to read and discuss books together, and we are on a mission to find out more about them.  By our count there are ten book groups meeting at the Main and Branch libraries each month.  We will be sharing information about these groups with you in the coming months, but we could use some help from you as well.

If you belong to a book group, or two or five, take the time to share something about your group with us.  Even if only some of you check out your book club selections from the library, you made a contribution to the Main Branch's amazing achievement.  We'd like to celebrate your group's achievements.  We would love to know all about you - who you are, how you formed, how long you've been together, what you read, how you choose, what your favorite books have been, or even that interesting something about your group that we have yet to imagine.  Please take the time to send us an email at cambridgelibraryfriends@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.  And check the blog next week to read about a book group that celebrated (and discussed)  its one-hundreth book in July.

There are always great things happening at the library! For more information on how you can get involved with the Friends of the Cambridge Public Library click here.