No Pain, No Gain

Here’s to our first week, and my first blog post, in May 2010. I always like to cycle through my week on Friday, and ask myself, what did I accomplish this week? Was I effective? Was I successful? Obviously, these questions are very subjective and self-analyzing, but is that necessarily a bad thing? Maybe if we took a look at what we did each week, we might realize there was so much more we could have done, and be motivated to complete so much more the next week. Maybe we could also appreciate the work that we did accomplish, and be encouraged by what we have accomplished.

Another thing on my mind is how easy it is to spend a couple hours watching a movie, and how hard it is to spend a couple hours reading a book. As young adult librarian, I’m trying to familiarize myself with young adult literature. Toward this end, I’m reading Jerry Spinelli’s Stargirl and next week I’m planning on reading Pete Hautman’s Rash. I’ve found an hour or so already to read the book, but I find that there is always something else I could be doing. Why is that? I went and saw Iron Man 2 last night. Great movie! But, why was I so fast to spend two hours watching a movie, and so slow at reading a novel? Not that I’m not enjoying Stargirl, but maybe it’s just easier to watch something than it is to read something. The answer could have something to do with whether or not we are passive or active consumers. If we are passive consumers, we don’t have to do anything to our media. Iron Man 2 is an example. I just have to sit there and watch it. For Stargirl, I have to be an active consumer. I have to imagine what Stargirl looks like. I have to think about whether or not I enjoy Spinell’s writing style. I have to imagine based on what Spinelli is trying to get at, instead of just watching Iron Man stomp on the latest bad guy.

I find that sometimes the hardest thing to do is start something. Something that is sitting still doesn’t want to get up. Something that is moving doesn’t want to stop. There is absolutely nothing wrong with spending two hours having fun with friends and watching a good movie. But there are also a lot of benefits to reading, and we often don’t tap into those benefits because it takes effort to get at them. As the saying goes, “No pain, no gain.” Reading isn’t pain for me, but it is work. Like most work, the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it. Iron Man 2 and Stargirl are very different, and there are different reasons for doing both. But it seems like we spend a whole lot of time watching movies, and not so much time reading books, myself included. I’m going to work on getting both in so I can reap the benefits of both mediums.

In addition to a lot of thinking this week, I’ve also had a meeting with a statewide committee on Teen Read Week, a national event sponsored by the American Library Association’s (ALA) Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Teen Read Week isn’t until October, but we’re getting some good ideas flowing already. I also had a chance to meet with Tim Boal from Lighting Comics. Tim is going to donate the use of some of his video games for our game night, and he’s also going to do two programs for us. One is a comic book read-along for the younger kids, and the other is a Yu-Gi-Oh training for our tweens. Although there is always something else to do, or read, here’s to what was accomplished this week, and here’s to what we will accomplish in this following week.