Resolve to READ this year!

And so it is that an old year turns over, and a new one- bright and shining with possibility- sprouts and begins afresh. The cyclical nature of our calendar year can be an excellent infrastructure for hope and new plans. New patterns and habits get a fresh shot and the optimistic light of possibility is allowed unclouded passage in these early days of the new year. It seems most of us have things about ourselves or our lives that we’d like to change, and whether you’re determined to enjoy your life more, become healthier, improve your mind, exercise more, or practice kindness with a more generous heart, the Johnson Public Library is here to offer a singular and powerful aid in your life-improving pursuits. Reading, you see, is  not only a fun and edifying activity, but according to a study from the National Endowment for the Arts, people who read are more likely to vote, exercise, and attend cultural activities. Reading improves memory and wards off Alzheimer’s disease while it is working behind the scenes to improve your writing abilities before you’ve even picked up a pen. Reading literary fiction has been proven to enhance a person’s empathy and ability to understand others- a skill that may well benefit all of us in this coming year beyond any other.

And so, why not make the library a regular part of your patterns in 2017?  Johnson Public Library is YOUR library- a public resource is that matters when it is valued by the community in which it exists to serve. Our library is a unique and valuable ocean of resources that reflects the diverse needs and interests of the folks in our small but rich town. The Johnson Public Library is a lifeline to the wider world.

Andrew Carnegie, who established 1,679 library buildings in communities throughout the nation between 1886 and 1919 believed that "A library outranks any other thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert."

And if, by chance, you happen to have a little extra to GIVE this year, you might feel inclined to check out our wish list of frequently used materials and supplies and offer a small token of your appreciation to the invaluable social and educational resource that is your public library. Our wish list can be found here.

And with that, I will leave you with a few of my favorite quotes about books and reading:

I read to lose myself and find myself at the same time.

-Imani Mosley

When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.

-Maya Angelou

There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.

-Marcel Proust

For Kafka, books were “the axe for the frozen sea within us”.

Perhaps the greatest reading pleasure has an element of self-annihilation. To be so engrossed that you barely know you exist.

-Ian McEwan