Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.

— Gustave Flaubert

(Source: brainyquote.com)

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.

— Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss! We have lots of books by and about Dr. Seuss in our collection (as well as eBooks) - check one out today! 

Summer Readers Good Luck For The Grandy Man?

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Soooo, as we previously mentioned, the Yankees honored six of our top summer readers at the Stadium yesterday before their game against the Oakland A’s. The Yankees went on to set the record for grand slams in one game, smacking three during a 22-9 pounding of the Athletics. Who hit the record-setting third slam? Curtis Granderson, the player who met with the summer readers beforehand (in the photo above by Sean Scanlin, Curtis is shaking hands with 16-year-old Khadija Bhuyian of The Bronx, our top summer reader who was profiled by the NY Times). He also met with our top summer readers during last year’s ceremony at Yankee Stadium - and he hit two home runs that day! Could we be a good luck charm for Curtis Granderson? Well, he HAS hit quite a few homers this year without any of our help, but we’d like to think so anyway! If he wants to invite us to every game, we’d be happy to oblige! 

The Yankees Root, Root, Root For Our Summer Readers

The Yankees honored some of NYPL’s top summer readers on the field today before they faced off against the Oakland A’s in the Bronx (rain couldn’t spoil our parade). Our six young reading machines - who read well over 1,000 books combined this summer - got to meet Yankee outfielder Curtis Granderson and were on the Jumbotron as part of the fun (as you can see in the photo above). Over 104,000 kids signed up for our summer reading program this year, which helps kids stay engaged when they’re out of school. The lead sponsor was Bank of America.

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

— Author Ray Bradbury, whose birthday is today and who once said, “Libraries raised me.” Happy birthday, Ray. NYPL has plenty of books by him and about him. Check one out today.

I love New York on summer afternoons when everyone’s away. There’s something very sensuous about it - overripe, as if all sorts of funny fruits were going to fall into your hands.

— 

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

It’s about the right time of year to read (or re-read) Gatsby. Why not go check it out? We have at least 153 copies throughout the boroughs…

Read Away Your Overdue Book Fines!

So let’s face reality - everyone forgets to bring back Library books sometimes. And when they do, they rack up fines. Sure, the fines aren’t that steep, but over time, they can add up. Here at NYPL, if you rack up $15 or more in fines, your card gets blocked and you can’t check out books anymore … and that’s sad. In this economy, even a small amount of money might be too much for some families, so one forgotten returned book becomes the end of the library for a while. So this summer, we are helping kids eliminate those fines (whether they be $1, $15 or more) with our new Read Down Your Fines program! Kids should sign up for our Summer Reading Program, then head down to their local library and explain that they want to read down their fines. For every 15 minutes they read, they get $1 off their fine. Great, right? We think so. Our priority is to get kids in the library, reading and learning all summer. So this is what we’re trying. This program goes until Sept. 9 - so hop to it! And in the meantime, enjoy the image above from the early 20th Century of “Heidi and Her Uncle Reading” from our Mid-Manhattan Picture Collection.

READ: seriously, you should do it.

This was the installation we’ve been tumbling about all day erected on our front steps made of 10,000 Dr. Seuss books as part of the Read Across America celebration. And check out this photo the NYTimes snapped of actress Keri Russell reading The Cat in the Hat to kids.

p.s. What is your favorite Dr. Seuss book?

One of NYPL’s central missions is to promote reading, so we’re giving a shout out to the band Pomplamoose, which is helping to do just that with a quirky campaign to get books into underprivileged California schools. The Bay Area band (which you may have heard in a series of Hyundai ads) is encouraging people across the world to buy books for schools in Richmond, California by offering their new five-song Christmas album for free as a reward. All you have to do is log on to the Richmond Book Drive website, buy a book off of a wish list set up on Amazon.com, plug your confirmation number into the book drive site and download the album. Check out the video to hear the band explain it all. Very cool, Pomplamoose. Very cool.