Did you get it?
Not the punch line to a joke, but I am referring to the Fraser Valley Regional Library Program Guide. Tucked nicely into the Observer is a booklet with all the interesting and fun stuff that your local library offers. You can, along with our local paper, have information on events at your local library, you can “branch” out (Ha! There it is; the funny part — a library joke!) and take in what is going on in other libraries in this wonderful system of libraries that covers our Valley. The guide can give you the low down on what events are taking place, but there are always events that take place that might not be listed there, so to make sure you have ALL the info about your library, use the ‘Find Your Program’ button on the FVRL website. You can pick the kind of program, the date range, the place and ... voila! A list of awesome library activities right before your eyes. It is crazy-easy!
And speaking of crazy, I just started a bit of a crazy-funny book, and who doesn’t like crazy-funny! It’s called, Lunatics and it is written by Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel. I love it when a book gets you on the first page of chapter one:
“My name is Philip Horkman and I own a pet shop called The Wine Shop – a modest store I opened fifteen years ago with money my in-laws, Lillian and Gerald Wine, loaned me on the condition that I name the place after them.
“But won’t that be confusing?”
I asked at the time: “Customers will think I sell liquor.” “Then sell liquor,” they said. “But I want to sell pets.”
“Then borrow money from people named Pets.”
And off it goes. Philip meets a guy named Jeffrey, who considers himself the only sane person in a world of jerks, and works as a forensic plumbing witness at court cases (who thought of that as a career?)
Somehow they have an adventure that involves terrorists, bears, politics, pirates and a run for their lives .... sounds like lunacy, right? This is a book that makes you chuckle as you sit and read, which is a great reason to grab it.
Now for a discovery. My household, in fact my family, are big readers of all books B.C. history. We found a new book on B.C. history .... HUA! Newly printed, we are sharing this one at my place and its called The Pathfinder: A.C. Anderson's Journeys in the West by Nancy Marguerite Anderson (yes, a relative, the great-granddaughter of A.C.) Before the Fraser River gold rush in 1858, a Hudson’s Bay Company clerk named Alexander Caulfield Anderson tramped his way through mountains and down white water rivers looking for a safe route from the Hudson’s Bay Company fort at Kamloops to Fort Langley on the Pacific coast. Anderson had lost the sense of adventure he thought that being part of the great HBC dynasty would offer, and so he fulfilled his dream, and kept his spirit of adventure alive by heading off exploring and mapping. He ended up finding four routes and gathered a wealth of information, but the book is a really good read by someone with lots to share and who knows more than just the work he did ... nothing like family to tell a story.
Upcoming events
You know we have all kinds of surprises at your library, books and otherwise, so watch for our World of Words workshop, Saturday, March 3 at 1 p.m. and Open Mic Night coming up in the first week of March. World of Words is a joint program brought to you by the Kent-Harrison Arts Council and the Agassiz Library. Wendy Dewar-Hughes is this year’s writer in residence, and will get that book out of you! Become the writer you always wanted to be. (See page 16 for related story.)
We always follow it with an Open Mic event, and this happens on Thursday, March 8. It will be an evening of readings, refreshments and music by our local Eviva songstresses. Come read with us, share your words. For more information on this and all library programs, call us ... 605-796-9510. You can always find something free, fun and enlightening in your library. That’s it for today .... see you in the stacks!
• Terrill Scott is Library Supervisor at the Agassiz Library