My LINKcat AccountThe Summer Reading Program ended on August 6th. Last week I gave you all the numbers for the program in terms of number of participants and books read. This week I have had time to do the math and can tell you how many pages were read and what that works out to in miles. Every year, for more years than I care to remember, I have been reporting the number of pages read in concrete terms. I have converted the number of pages read (or pages listened to, or time spent reading) into inches, then converted those inches into miles, and then plotted that number of miles on a map. Since I have been doing this annually for enough years for this to have become a tradition, and since I’m wise enough not to tamper with a fine tradition, here goes!
This year 476 people participated in the Summer Library Program. Over 22,666 books were read. The books read convert to 1,857,614 pages. That’s just over 3,900 pages read by every participant. There were 280 reviews were written and 7,698 badges were earned.
Now, on to the calculations which begin with this question: “If you laid all the pages of the books that were read end-to-end how many miles would they stretch?” The average size of a page is 9 inches tall which gives us (1, 857,614 times 9” or) 16,718,526 inches—always show your work if you want to receive full credit. Then we take those inches and divide by 12 to give us 1,393,210 feet and then divide by 5,280 to give us 263.86 miles. And, voilà! If you laid all the pages read during the Summer Reading Program end to end and drove north and west via I90 you would end up about 16 miles west of Alberta Lea, Minnesota. If you headed south along 190/194 you’d be about 2 miles this side of South Bend, Indiana. How cool is that? Based on the huge number of readers and the ginormous number of books read, I am forced to conclude that this was a great summer for reading. Congratulations to all the Summer Reading participants.
Below you will find some recently arrived books to keep you in shape for the start of the Winter Reading Program, which isn’t all that far away. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
The Authoritarian Movement: How the Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent by Ben Shapiro. "A New York Times" #1 best-selling author asks how far Americans are actually willing to go in forcing each other to fall in line.
All in: An Autobiography by Billie Jean King. This autobiography from the tennis legend discusses not only her historic accomplishments on the court, but also her activism as a feminist and social justice fighter in the wake of her coming out as a gay at age 51.
Swan Dive: The Making of a Rogue Ballerina by Georgina Pazcoguin. Award-winning New York City Ballet soloist Georgina Pazcoguin, aka the Rogue Ballerina, gives readers a backstage tour of the real world of elite ballet—the gritty, humorous, sometimes shocking truth you don’t see from the orchestra circle.
Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century by Tim Higgins. In this story of power, recklessness, struggle and triumph, a Wall Street Journal tech and auto reporter, who had a front-row seat for the drama, recounts the story of Elon Musk and Tesla’s bid to build the world’s greatest car.
New Fiction
A Deadly Deletion, No. 15 (Booktown Mysteries) by Lorna Barrett. When her quasi-boyfriend Marshall is killed in a hit-and-run after proposing to her, bookstore owner Tricia Miles investigates after narrowly escaping the same fate while walking her sister's dog the latest novel of the series following Handbook for Homicide.
A Few Drops of Bitters, No. 26 (Savannah Reid) by G. A. McKevett. After the jet-setting, brain surgeon husband of her veterinarian friend dies after making a champagne toast at a star-studded party, plus-sized private eye Savannah Reid investigates in the latest novel of the series following And the Killer Is…
Nine Lives by Danielle Steele. On her own and feeling a sense of adventure for the first time, Maggie Kelly, facing her fears, embarks on a whirlwind trip around the globe that brings her face-to-face with the very same irresistible, thrill-seeking man she’s spent 30 years trying to forget.
The Bone Code (A Temperance Brennan Novel) by Kathy Reichs. When forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan discovers a link between two murder victims and the spread of a human flesh-eating contagion, she soon recognizes that someone will do anything to protect a dark secret.
The Cellist by Daniel Silva. After the fatal poisoning of a Russian billionaire, art restorer and spy Gabriel Allon is led to a musical virtuoso who may hold the key to the truth as well as to secret channels of money and influence that threaten the very stability of the global order.
Falling: A Novel by T. J. Newman. Thirty minutes before a flight to New York, the family of the pilot is kidnapped and in order for them to live, all 143 passengers onboard must die in the first novel by a former flight attendant.
The Forbidden, No. 34 (Krewe of Hunters) by Heather Graham. When a real murder occurs on set, actress Avalon Morgan is led to the darkest corners of the internet where killers confess their crimes—a discovery that puts her in the path of a killer and in the arms of an FBI agent working the case.
Robert Ludlum’s the Bourne Treachery (Jason Bourne) by Brian Freeman. A lone operative working in the shadows for Treadstone, Jason Bourne engages in a cat-and-mouse game with Lennon across the British countryside in an attempt to prevent another assassination—a mission that calls into question everything he thought he knew about the past.
The Shadow by James Patterson & Brian Sitts. Awakening in a world both unknown and disturbingly familiar, Lamont Cranston, aka the Shadow, must once again go up against his fiercest enemy, Shiwan Khan, and prove that he is not only a super crime-fighter, but an icon.