If, like most people these days, you’re spending more and more time on your computer, playing video games, and watching home movies, chances are you have less and less time for books and reading. With the start of the New Year, there are dozens of ways to invite books back to a prominent place in your life:

1. Resolve to read the book before you see the movie version.

2. Subscribe to a new periodical. There are dozens on the shelves at the library if you want to test drive a few before you choose.

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3. Join or start a book club.

4. Read aloud to your children every day.

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5. Get a library card.

6. Choose an author and read all the books he or she has written.

7. Attend an event with an author.

8. Give a book for a gift.

9. Re-read a book you remember from your childhood.

10. Create a comfortable space in your home for reading.

11. Try out a book in a genre which is unfamiliar to you.

12. Buy a good dictionary if you don’t have one.

13. Listen to a book on tape or CD.

14. Make a list of unfamiliar words you encounter while reading and look up their meanings.

15. Take the literacy training course at the library and become a tutor to help someone improve his or her language skills.

16. Read a guide book before you visit a new place (the library has a big collection of travel books).

17. Read a work of historical fiction about a period of history that interests you (the library has a list of historical fiction to help you choose and to which you can add your favorites).

18. Write a short story or poem.

19. Keep a reading journal of the books you’ve read and why you liked ” or didn’t like ” them.

20. Read about someone who has done something you’d never do: climbing Mt Everest, walking across Africa, living in Jerusalem, working in a refugee camp, designing fabric, working as an actor …

21. Read aloud to a sick or housebound friend or relative.

22. Learn a new skill ” knitting, plumbing, cooking, fly fishing ” by reading about it.

23. Ask friends and coworkers what they’re reading.

24. Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper or magazine.

25. Try your hand at a crossword puzzle.

26. Dust off the board and play a game of Scrabble.

27. Read a book of short stories.

28. Ask a bookseller or a librarian to recommend a good book.

29. Read a book by a local author (booksellers and librarians can help).

30. Read a classic work of fiction by an author such as Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, Jane Austin, Pearl S. Buck, Leo Tolstoy, or …

31. Read a biography.

32. Donate books to a women’s shelter or preschool.

33. Read a book by an international author which is not set in the USA.

34. Read a book that has gotten a bad review.

35. Read a play.

36. Explore the culture of another country by reading several books by natives.

37. If you’re finished with a new bestseller, donate it to the Library.

Pam McAdoo is a Truckee resident, an artist and active in library issues in the community.

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Hours

Monday 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.

Tuesday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Wednesday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Thursday 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.

Friday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Saturday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. –

Bookshelf Book Club

Meets at the Library on the third Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. The next meeting will be Jan.16 when the group will discuss Isabel Allende’s “Daughter of Fortune.” Participants at the book group meeting will receive a coupon for 15 percent off a one-time book purchase at the Bookshelf at Hooligan Rocks.

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Special Children’s Program

Winter Reading Program: “Stories to the Screen: Books that Became Movies”

For ages 5 and up, now through February 2007. Sign up anytime at the Library.

Children’s Programs

Toddlertime

Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. for ages 2 to 3 years

Babes in Bookland

Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m., for ages 6 to 24 months

Storytelling with Mrs. Fix

Thursdays at 11:15 a.m. For ages 3 to 6

Bilingual Storytimes

Stories, songs, and fingerplays in Spanish and English

Fridays when school is in session, weather permitting, at 10 a.m. and 1p.m., for ages 3 to 5

Now on display at the library

Portraits by Truckee artist Raphael Jolly

Over the fireplace: acrylic painting by Eve Werner, Quercus lobata ‘serpentine’