Be Athenians, not Visigoths

"Man Cave" vs "the Study"

That's a meme I am quite fond of and struck by. And it's probably a testament to our times, not in a good way. It's no surprise that people, especially men, are reading less than they have in the past fifty years or so. Beyond that, people are mostly mired in a sea of superficial content which they are constantly scrolling through with the attention span of a gnat. 

And I don't mean to be snotty and pretentiously above all that. I am certainly guilty, too.

However, I was recently thinking about a line from David Foster Wallace's profoundly simple commencement speech, "This is Water." As DFW describes the mundane banality of adult life when we are wrapped up in the frustrating tedium of sitting in traffic on the way home from work, he opines that our ego leads us to dwell on the negative. While our natural default setting is to be annoyed at all the other people who are in our way, we do have a choice in how we think about any situation we are in. More importantly we have options in what we choose to think about.

And, that wonderful little epiphany -- easier to acknowledge than to practice -- got me thinking more deeply about how we choose to spend our time and what we choose to think about. It reminded me of another commencement speech, albeit one that was never actually given. It comes from a favorite writer and thinker of mine, Neil Postman. I've used this piece on occasion with my writing students, and it's a valuable piece of advice for how we choose to live. Basically, Postman tells the story of two notable groups of people in the history of western civilization, the Athenians and the Visigoths. And Postman's advice is to choose to be an Athenian, not a Visigoth. 

Athenians and Visigoths: Neil Postman’s Graduation Speech - First Things 

The first group lived about 2,500 years ago in the place which we now call Greece, in a city they called Athens. We do not know as much about their origins as we would like. But we do know a great deal about their accomplishments. They were, for example, the first people to develop a complete alphabet, and therefore they became the first truly literate population on earth. They invented the idea of political democracy, which they practiced with a vigor that puts us to shame. They invented what we call philosophy. And they also invented what we call logic and rhetoric. They came very close to inventing what we call science, and one of them—Democritus by name—conceived of the atomic theory of matter 2,300 years before it occurred to any modern scientist. They composed and sang epic poems of unsurpassed beauty and insight. And they wrote and performed plays that, almost three millennia later, still have the power to make audiences laugh and weep. They even invented what, today, we call the Olympics, and among their values none stood higher than that in all things one should strive for excellence. They believed in reason. They believed in beauty. They believed in moderation. And they invented the word and the idea which we know today as ecology.

I'd like to think I spend more time practicing the Athenian pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. And, granted, this is to acknowledge that ancient Athens wasn't some utopia of goodness, peace, and wisdom. But we like to live and think by dichotomies for a reason, and in a comparison of better and worse ways to live, the Athenian-Visigoth split is a pretty decent divergence of paths. 

I certainly hope I am choosing to be a better person most of the time. And, keeping in mind DFW's advice, I hope I can remember more often than not to choose an attitude of grace and compassion, of empathy and understanding, of caring and kindness, as opposed to living with judgment and suspicion and contempt. 

As Longfellow once wrote, "Act that each tomorrow finds us further than today." Here's to getting better, one choice at a time.

Is Substack the New Local Paper?

The Substack newsletter as the new source for local news is an intriguing idea. 

The local paper has always been sacrosanct in my view, and I truly worry about the fading prominence of the local news source. There was a time when residents of a community were well informed of local issues -- from high school sports to city council affairs to public service projects to engaging features of local interest -- and the local paper was the thread that held people together. Having grown up with publications like The Alton Telegraph, Advantage News, and The Riverfront Times, I valued the local view.

Living in Colorado now -- for twenty-plus years in southeast Denver -- I valued not only the Denver Post but also the numerous local weeklies, many a part of Colorado Community Media. Papers like The Villager, Aurora Sentinel, Centennial Citizen, and more were a regular part of my reading regimen. And, of course, I always check in with Westword, Denver's alt-weekly for music, arts, and culture news (note: I freelance for Westword). And, of course, as a regular visitor to the High Country in the summer, my days in Summit County were never complete without picking up a copy of the Summit Daily.

So, I am a bit saddened that few people check in with local news anymore -- and worse, that they only get local "news" from sites like ... ugh, NextDoor. 

That's why I am intrigued by the possibility that Substack can be the new source for the local daily, or weekly, in an online, digital world. And it's kind of cool that Substack has an informative post about how to make that happen:  Getting started with local news on Substack - On Substack

The world needs local news more than ever. Local journalism informs and brings together communities, but has never been more under threat. We strongly believe in the potential of the Substack model for building a sustainable, subscription-based business model for local news writers and readers alike. Emerging publications like The Mill (Manchester), The Rover (Montreal), The Addison Times (Addison), The Charlotte Ledger, and City Hall Watcher (Toronto) are already leading the way, and we’re fostering more local news publications through our Substack Local initiative.

In this guide, we provide tips and strategies for starting and succeeding with a local news publication on Substack:

Getting started

Before launching your local news publication, it’s important to define the overall editorial and business strategy for your publication. What makes it different from the existing local news ecosystem? What is the unique value your readers will only be able to get from your publication?

Decide what job you’ll do for your readers. Clearly define for yourself and your readers your publication’s value proposition: the reason that your writing is useful and can’t be found anywhere else. You might cover a beat other reporters aren’t, focus on data and quantitative methods like City Hall Watcher, or bring perspective from an underrepresented community or location. Substack writer Casey Newton explains and provides more examples here.

Go newsletter-first, and stay lean. A great newsletter requires focus. It’s lower-cost to operate than a traditional web or print publication, and more importantly, is a format that cultivates a direct relationship to readers. The goal is to write a fantastic regularly scheduled newsletter that readers can make part of their daily or weekly news habit.

Develop deep ties with the local community. Obvious but important! Successful local news writers should have broad and deep context, knowledge, and relationships in the community they’re writing for and about – ideally, they should already be known as trustworthy, credible thinkers by the community.

Substack Success Stories

Should I start a Substack?

Well, probably not. But it's a question many bloggers, writers, artists, journalists, marketers and more are asking themselves. I've been blogging here for almost twenty years, and it's never been anything other than a site to post written work that is not more refined and targeted for publication elsewhere, notably magazines, news and culture websites, or newspapers. While I did carry ads for many years and also utilized Amazon Affiliate links, they never produced any significant income, and this blog is not a place regular readers visit daily or weekly for a column.

Granted, I was a weekly columnist for The Villager, a community weekly in southeast Denver for several years, and I regularly published one-off pieces with the Denver Post among other papers. And, yes, I've been a freelance music, arts, and culture writer for alt-weeklies like Westword and 303 Magazine. But those, too, have never been regular work as a writer and certainly not anything that could be considered a job or career. Yet, I know I had a decent reader base in the Denver area, and I often wondered whether I could carry that into something like Substack as a weekly newsletter with a decent audience base.

Alas, probably not.

However, I am intrigued by the writers who have made the leap to Substack and managed to make a go of it. One neat story came from a career columnist in Davis, California, who was abruptly let go. Bob Dunning had been a working journalist and columnist for more than fifty years when his paper laid him off. On the advice of friends and family, he started a Substack newsletter and wrote a piece about how: ‘It’s like getting a raise every single day’ - On Substack

Bob published a raw piece on his new Substack, The Wary One, explaining what it felt like to be laid off after five and a half decades of service, and the subscribers started to pour in. “My god, it was instant. A giant whoosh,” he says. “I’m so energized. I still don’t understand it.”

Within the first two months, it was clear to Bob that the move was the “golden opportunity of a lifetime.” He has more than doubled the $26-an-hour rate he had been making at the Davis Enterprise and expects to earn around $100,000 this year. “It didn’t seem like much of a risk to give Substack a try. How could I possibly have known what was just around the corner?”

On Substack, Bob continues to write a daily column about his life and local issues, imbuing it with the trademark familiarity that made him beloved among regular readers. One of his most popular columns, from 1997, looks at the joy and anguish of dropping off your youngest child at college; another details his colonoscopy.

And although his audience has expanded—on the fifth day after launch, his column was already read in 43 states and 23 countries—his relationship with his readers remains just as intimate.

How Stacey Woelfel would Run CBS News

I love newspapers.

Having grown up in a house where three daily papers were delivered and read religiously -- and having a mother who was a journalist, editor, and feature writer -- I can't imagine a day without a newspaper. I read three-four newspapers everyday -- Denver Post, Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal, and the Denver paper comes in print edition digital format, so I read it cover to cover like the old days. 

Alas, I fully know and begrudgingly accept the changing landscape of news and print journalism that has led to the rise of Substack newsletters. And I am rather intrigued by the way some individual Substack newsletters have become, in some ways, major "newspapers." Yes, I am clearly talking about the rise of The Free Press and with it the writer -- and now head of CBS News -- Bari Weiss.   

So I was quite intrigued, engaged, and informed by the recent Substack article If I Were the Boss at CBS… by Stacey Woelfel, the esteemed journalist and emeritus professor at the University of Missouri's journalism school. Woelfel's newsletter The Last Editor is a thoughtful and informative take on the industry from one who knows it best.

I’m sure we’re all watching what’s going on at CBS News right now. From the appointment of a “bias monitor” to the hiring of Bari Weiss as the first ever editor-in-chief for CBS News, all indications are that the most valuable brand in TV news is about to be dismantled and thrown to the dogs as scraps. Now under the control of billionaire heir David Ellison, this journalism giant has been a thorn in the side of the Trump administration and it appears Ellison plans to do something about that.

These changes shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of us. Buying up news organizations to muzzle them has become a regular pastime for the billionaire class. As we watch the demise of the Tiffany Network’s strong news voice, I figured I would spin a fantasy about what I’d do if someone gave me the keys to CBS and told me to “go crazy.” So here goes, the nine moves I’d make if I ran CBS (in no particular order):

I appreciated many of Woelfel's insights and suggestions, but as a resident of Colorado, I was quite intrigued by his comments on local news hound Kyle Clark of 9-News and a unique and innovative news show "Next with Kyle Clark." Clark is a true gem who has vastly improved the journalism landscape of Colorado since coming to us from the East and Syracuse University.

Hire Denver’s Kyle Clark and his team to remake the CBS Evening News

I’ve left the flagship news broadcast for nearly last, though that doesn’t mean I don’t have big changes in mind there, too. The network evening news—on all the networks—has devolved to a point that it serves no purpose, as far as I can tell, other than as a carrier for pharmaceutical advertising. Why not remake the program into something that will once again be important for informed people to see? I’d have CBS reach outside the company for this one, offering Kyle Clark and his team at Denver’s KUSA-TV (a TEGNA powerhouse) whatever it takes to get them to jump ship and bring their innovative newscast to the network. If you’re unfamiliar with Mr. Clark’s work, I urge you to take a look at his daily 6 pm newscast, entitled Next with Kyle Clark. Clark and his team are reinventing local TV news, actually making it valuable to viewers. Clark tells it like it is, which means no both sides-isms; instead, he calls out those who deserved to be called out no matter where they are on the political spectrum. Getting Clark on the network (or someone else able to do something similar) would breathe new life into a tired, yet still important news daypart.

Murakami's 1Q84 is a Wild, Bizarre, and Beautifully Written Ride

And, I finished.

About two months ago, I picked up 1Q84, Hideki Murakami's 1,200 page monolithic novel set in 1984 Tokyo and published initially in three parts over the course of 2009-10. Working as I do in a high school library, I have various times assigned to general supervision -- or "recess duty" as I like to call it -- when students are off class and hanging out or passing through the media center. I generally walk around the various spaces, and then park myself near a book shelf in the center and casually read while maintaining an "adult presence." And, I also have some times where I have to wait for students coming for tech assistance -- I don't get started with any projects because over the course of 10-15 minutes several times a day I will be interrupted numerous times. So I wait, and read.

I figured if I read a few pages, maybe a short chapter, over the course of the year, I'd be done sometime in the second semester. Well, it only took two months, and it was quite a fascinating literary treat. My wife is a serious Murakami fan, and I've never gotten into his novels, though I've truly enjoyed his two works of nonfiction, What I Talk about When I Talk about Running and his explanation of the life of a writer Novelist as a Vocation. So, I wasn't sure how I'd like this doorstop of a book -- but he had me hooked from page one in the slightly odd bit of casually dystopian magical realism about the story of ... well, two people searching for each other.

The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

Murakami is quite a unique writer, I have learned, and there is something strangely compelling in this story that I appreciated in a way I hadn't expected. Critics of the book -- and they were vast when it was first published in English -- call out the use of cliche and the needless repetition in the story, but I wasn't bothered by either issue, and honestly saw repeated descriptions as a way of circling back around a puzzling situation mentally, looking for an angle. That's clearly an intentional choice.

It might be cliche to talk about novels as a way of "exploring the human condition," but I found the descriptions of the characters' individual histories and internal conflicts and personal battles and endless searching to be quite endearing, if not in a somewhat curious manner. And, again, I found my self dwelling on certain descriptions and scenes. I've heard that when Murakami first started writing, he wrote in English and then translated that back into Japanese, a style that was unfamiliar and strangely compelling to Japanese audiences. That may have been the key to his initial success. 

And it worked. And it has been working for decades.

Richard Linklater Re-invents Film Again with Nouvelle Vague

The first time I saw the movie Breathless, it blew my mind. But not in the way you might think. Because I am talking about the 1982 remake of the groundbreaking Jean Luc Goddard film from 1960 that revolutionized the film industry and ushered in a new term, New Wave. I was twelve at the time and Richard Gere's portrayal of the charming but doomed car thief infatuated with a French college student in Los Angeles was about the coolest thing I had ever seen onscreen. 

Later, I discovered an older and more classic, even cooler, sort of cool when I watched the original French film in college. And that was roughly the same time I discovered Richard Linklater, whose independent film Slacker was a sort of ground zero for a new revolution of film in America at the end of the twentieth century. 

And now those two cinematic revolutions, which were an epiphany for me in terms of art and filmmaking, come together in Nouvelle Vague, the latest film from Linklater that tells the story of the making of Goddard's Breathless. I plan to revisit both the 1990s and the 1960s tonight when I fire up Netflix (another revolution in film to be honest), reveling in "Linklater's Ode to Breathless." 

Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” a film about filmmaking, is suffused with intoxicating glamour — the glamour of youth, of beauty, of grand aesthetic pursuits, Paris at twilight and, bien sûr, cinema itself. Set largely in Paris in 1959 and almost entirely in French, it revisits the title movement that was embodied by young moviemakers who upended and disregarded cinematic norms with the kinds of stories they were telling and, crucially, how. With new attitudes, techniques, technologies, casts, crews and with one another’s support, they were borrowing from the past, engaging with the present and creating the future.

“A whole galaxy of young people,” the filmmaker Pierre Kast said that year to Jean-Luc Godard, “are in the process of taking the old Bastille of the French cinema by assault.”

The Penny Fades into History

After 230 years in circulation, the copperhead run has come to an end. And consumers should prepare for the price on everything to go up four cents over time.

That's the big news announced yesterday when the US Treasury minted its last one-cent coin forever. 

In a penny-pinching move, the U.S. Mint has produced its last one-cent coin. The final penny was minted in Philadelphia Wednesday, 232 years after the first penny rolled off the production line. The government decided to stop making new pennies because each one costs nearly 4 cents to produce. The move is expected to save about $56 million a year.

If you have a jar of pennies on your dresser, or a few stuck in your couch cushions, don't worry. They're still perfectly legal for making payments. But of the more than $1 billion worth of pennies in circulation, most never circulate. And it was costing the government a lot of money to keep making more of them.

As a proud son of the Land of Lincoln, the great state of Illinois, I am rather saddened by the end of the penny. There was a time when Illinois' political leaders would never have let this happen. In fact, the movement to get rid of the penny has been around for decades, but back in the day, the Illinois reps would effectively squelch any move by any rep from any state to eliminate the Lincoln penny. And with a strong electoral presence, legendary political leaders in the House and Senate, and the power of Chicago politics, no serious penny-pinching plan ever got off the ground or out of committee.

The word from the Illinois contingent was clear:  Mess with the penny and your state will never pass a single bit of meaningful legislation or receive any favors from the federal level again. 

Perhaps that story is a bit apocryphal ... but for anyone growing up in the Land of Lincoln, I don't doubt it. In fact, many years ago, the College Board actually put a synthesis DBQ argument question on the AP English Language and Composition national test about whether to eliminate the penny. My students that year were quite proud to have additional knowledge on the issue, giving them enough evidence for perhaps an additional paragraph to their essay. Argue for or against keeping the penny? Nonsense. It didn't matter because it was never gonna happen.

But, now ... it's over. 

Of course, while penny critics note that a penny costs almost five cents to produce and eliminating it will save the taxpayers $56 million, the nickel actually costs much more at nearly fourteen cents. So, perhaps the feds should eliminate the nickel and round up to the dime. Or why not just round everything up to the next dollar and eliminate all change?

Greatest High School Movies

I saw an online post that asked, "What is the greatest high school movie, and why is it Clueless."

As I pondered the post and question, I had to concede that the Amy Heckerling 90's film re-imagining of Jane Austen's Emma is a pretty qualified nominee for the moniker. It's an incredibly entertaining film that actually holds up pretty well after thirty years. 

When I think about teen films and high school movies, I go back to the early 1980s, and honestly the first two I can recall are Amy Heckerling's original teen classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High, based on the non-fiction high school expose by a young music writer named Cameron Crowe, and a less memorable but sweetly entertaining film The Last American Virgin. 

Entertainment Weekly recently posted its list of the greatest high school/teen movies. Some of my favorites are classics like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ten Things I Hate About You, and Can't Buy Me Love. But here's an interesting question: How do we feel about Grease?

Colfax Carousal Punk Fest -- Denver

It's been a while, but this is my most recent piece for Westword:

It’s no secret to anyone traveling around Denver that the Bus Rapid Transit project has put a significant strain on the numerous small businesses, restaurants, and music venues lining the historic and traditionally lively Colfax Avenue corridor. As the area struggles to stay vibrant and financially solvent, two local punk musicians who grew up in the scene want to give something back. Tom Dodd and Ryan Heller, of Denver band Tuff Bluff, have organized the inaugural Colfax Carousel Punk Fest, which will debut on Saturday, November 15.

“There are so many cool bands in Denver,” Dodd says, “and we just thought it’d be cool to have a show to see all these bands at one time.”

Dodd and Heller have felt like some local music fests don’t always showcase Denver talent as well as they’d like. So, with the news that the Underground Music Showcase was in its final year, they had a huddle. “Ryan said, ‘Let’s just do it. We can get all these Denver bands, put them on one bill, showcase local music, and help out these venues,'” Dodd says. “So, it’s just a win-win.”

“Colfax has such a rich history,” Heller adds, “but the area is hurting, and we just want to help out.”

Read the rest of the story at Westword.

Thoreauvian Walking

Henry Thoreau was an inveterate walker, often spending three or four hours in the afternoon sauntering around Concord and Walden Woods. In fact, other than writing prodigiously -- his journal surpasses two million words -- walking could be considered one of his primary occupations. Thoreau was a "saunterer," and one of his most well-known essays is simply titled "Walking."

For someone who struggled with and died early from tuberculosis, Thoreau's sauntering is an impressive ... "feet." And, in the contemporary age we know that walking is one of the most important habits we can establish for both physical and mental health. A recent study has re-established the role that a daily walk of fifteen minutes or more can play in staving off the risks of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Walking for at least 10 or 15 minutes at a time might do more for your health and longevity than spreading your steps out into shorter walks throughout the day, a large-scale new study suggests.

The study, published in October, looked at the effects of how people gather their steps each day, as well as how many steps they take and the associations that these patterns of daily activity might have with risks for heart disease and premature death.

The data showed that middle-aged and older people in the study who grouped some of their steps into walks lasting for 15 continuous minutes or more were about half as likely to develop heart disease within the near term as those men and women who rarely walked for that long at one time. The people taking longer walks were also less likely to die during the years-long study from any cause.

Thoreau walked as a way of life. And he even had a quaint explanation for the origin of the term saunter. We should consider the wisdom of his words:

I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute Freedom and Wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil,—to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society. I wish to make an extreme statement, if so I may make an emphatic one, for there are enough champions of civilization: the minister and the school committee and every one of you will take care of that.

I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks—who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering, which word is beautifully derived “from idle people who roved about the country, in the Middle Ages, and asked charity, under pretense of going à la Sainte Terre,” to the Holy Land, till the children exclaimed, “There goes a Sainte-Terrer,” a Saunterer, a Holy-Lander. They who never go to the Holy Land in their walks, as they pretend, are indeed mere idlers and vagabonds; but they who do go there are saunterers in the good sense, such as I mean. Some, however, would derive the word from sans terre without land or a home, which, therefore, in the good sense, will mean, having no particular home, but equally at home everywhere. For this is the secret of successful sauntering. He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all; but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea. But I prefer the first, which, indeed, is the most probable derivation. For every walk is a sort of crusade, preached by some Peter the Hermit in us, to go forth and reconquer this Holy Land from the hands of the Infidels.

It is true, we are but faint-hearted crusaders, even the walkers, nowadays, who undertake no persevering, never-ending enterprises. Our expeditions are but tours, and come round again at evening to the old hearth-side from which we set out. Half the walk is but retracing our steps. We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance, in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return,—prepared to send back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms. If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them again,—if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man; then you are ready for a walk.

Fighting the American Revolution Again with Ken Burns

Several years ago on this blog and in my column for The Villager, I told the story of “29 and 0!”. As I was just starting my high school teacher career, a colleague and I heard a voice booming through the doorway into the teacher lounge. It was Tom, a veteran history and government teacher who was also the head baseball coach and a bit of a legend around town for his gruff but engaging presence, as well as his state championships.

When my colleague and friend Jane asked, “Uh, what, Tom? What are you yelling about? What’s 29 and O?” Tom, the high school’s lovable curmudgeon, glanced sideways at us with a suspicious scowl that melted into a mischievous grin. “I’ve been teaching American history for twenty-nine years,” he growled. “I’ve taught the Revolutionary War twenty-nine times.” He paused for effect. “America has never lost! We’re 29 and 0!”

It's in that spirit of teaching history as a living, breathing thing that I am anticipating the long-awaited release of legendary documentarian filmmaker Ken Burns The American Revolution, which premieres on PBS next weekend, November 16. For many historians, history fans, and average Americans feeling a bit anxious about the state of the union, the release couldn't come at a better time. Jennifer Shuessler of the New York Times recently spent time with Burns, exploring the question: "Can Ken Burns Win the American Revolution?"

“The American Revolution is encrusted with the barnacles of sentimentality and nostalgia,” he said. But his six-part, 12-hour documentary about the subject, which debuts on PBS on Nov. 16, will aim to strip that away — and hopefully bring some healing to our own fractured moment.

“We say, ‘Oh we’re so divided,’ as if we’re Chicken Little and this is the worst it’s ever been,” he said. “But the Revolution was a pretty divided time. The Civil War was a pretty divided time. Almost all of American history is division.”

Maybe storytelling, he said, can “help short-circuit the binaries we have today.”

The remarks were pure Burns — the kind of sunny all-American optimism that thrills his admirers, and draws eye-rolls among skeptics. But “The American Revolution,” which Burns directed with Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, is arriving at a moment when even attempting to bring a unifying story to a broad American middle feels like a radical act.

Speed Dating with a Book

I don't believe that everyone will be a reader if they simply find the right book. That view puts me at odds with many of my fellow English teachers and librarians. Not every person will love to read books or choose to spend their time lost in a novel. However, I do believe in the value of putting a book in someone's hands that might pique their interest. That's especially true for kids.

And for teachers and school librarians, an excellent way to do that is an activity known as "Speed Dating with a Book." When I was an English teacher at a school with one of the best high school libraries I've ever known, I was introduced to the idea from one of our research librarians, and on numerous occasions I began taking my classes, especially freshmen, to the library once or twice a year. By the way, a great day to try this is on Dr. Seuss's birthday, also known as Read Across America Day.

This week I hosted several classes in my beautiful high school library for a few rounds of book speed dating. Basically, students are give three rounds of 10-15 minutes to simply try out a book. I began by setting up six tables with a selection of different genres: sports books, history and historical fiction, YA lit and coming-of-age, great stories, memoir, and action/mystery/thriller. I explained the idea and then "book talked" a couple titles from each table. I also pointed out several displays in the library, including "Great Beach Reads," "Faculty/Staff Recommendations," and "Classic Thrillers."

I would then set a timer and encourage the students to do the classic "book store dance" -- peruse book covers and titles, skim the back cover or flyleaf, and then find a comfy spot to give the book a chance. After about twelve minutes, I'd encourage them to pick a new book, perhaps explore a new genre. And then we'd do a third round. After about forty minutes, I'd offer them the opportunity to check out a book or just go back to class. Yesterday I was "matchmaker" for more than a dozen students who took a book home for the weekend, and hopefully more.

What a great way to spend a day in a high school library.

Here are some titles that went home with a new friend this weekend:

Where the Crawdads Sing

Moneyball and The Blindside

Perks of Being a Wallflower

Carter Finally Gets It

A Child Called It

Book Lovers