Hello, I’m Alan aka Tater, Nice to Meet You An Introduction to Me Updated 12/8/21 About Me I am a 52-year-old semi-retired/on sabbatical librarian. I left my job of 25 years one year ago this week because it was destroying my mental health. I am one of those writers who…

Some of the winners of the awards for young adult and children’s literature — The ALA Youth Media Awards were announced this morning. As always, I watched the announcement and took notes. I focused on books for teens as that was my specialty when I was in libraries. I will only list the winners for all but the three major awards (Printz, Caldecott, Newbery). …

This is a post I write every Sunday on my blog. I don’t cross post it here because I don’t think it is Medium quality writing. I decided to cross-post it today just to mention the reason I write it every week. It is easy to get bogged down in…

A look back at the week in TV, books, and life. — I think unless my life schedule changes this will be a regular Saturday thing. It seems easier that way. Life I have dropped Monday from my volunteer schedule at the farm. I am now only there two days a week and I am not doing any facilities work. I hope that…

I’m trying to stop letting others steal the joy I find in life — We sing a song at church with ‘Ain’t nothing gonna steal my joy” in the lyrics. The Kentucky basketball coach has said before that he wasn’t going to let people steal his joy. That phrase, mainly the song, has been in my head this morning because I have a bad…

A look at my life, movies, TV, and books for the week — I’m still working out how and when I will do my week in review. Will it move to Saturday morning permanently? Will I write it Thursday afternoon and schedule it for Friday morning? Will it still just be what I watched and read or will I include other things? Time…

Some of the various habits and rules I have for reading — Never Read a Series Out of Order I went to the library recently and decided to pick up a book by Karin Slaughter. I had read one of her standalones and saw her Will Trent series was now a TV show so I wanted to read more. I picked up a book, read the description, thought it…

A look at my week — I still haven’t figured out the direction I want to go if I continue a weekly wrap-up post each week. I couldn’t even decide what to title this one. When I was thinking through names “My Week in Consumption” popped into my head. That sounds like I have an old-timey…

As I was contemplating if I had anything worth writing today, the Today Show did a segment with Jenna Bush Hager about how to keep your resolution to read more. Here are her tips and my thoughts on them. Always Keep a Book On You This is a rule I have generally followed most of my…