OCEANSIDE — A friendly group of avid readers participated in Speed Book Sharing at Mission Branch Library on Feb. 14.“It’s a way to connect people who love reading,” said Franklin Escobedo, principal librarian of young adult services. “It’s like a book club, but not so restrictive. We’re serving Shirley Temple drinks with snacks to make it more of an event.”
After introductions and light refreshments, adult participants paired up with a fellow reader to talk about their favorite book for three minutes.
Then they listened to their partner share information on a favorite read.
Readers Jaizsha Ross and Dionna Davis paired up to share books. Ross talked about “Super Sad True Love Story,” by Gary Shteyngart.
“It’s about this old fat guy (Lenny Abramov),” Ross said. “He sells services to have an excellent life. It takes place in the future. Looks are everything.
Eunice (Park) thinks he’s old and gross, but is fascinated with him.”
After both partners shared, readers were matched with new partners. At the end of the night participants voted on which shared book they would most like to read.
“It’s a light, quick way of talking about books,” Kim Mitchell, library assistant in charge of programming, said. “You have a brief moment to sell a book.”
A Speed Book Sharing event also took place in August to celebrate Book Lovers Day on Aug. 9.
“We had seen it at another library,” Escobedo said. “It’s a way of getting people who like books to talk about books.”
Mission Branch Library is the smaller of the two Oceanside Public Libraries, but still accounts for half of the book circulation. Escobedo said there are a lot of avid readers who use the Mission Branch Library. Many of those readers check out books and take them home to read he added.
The event gives library users an opportunity to interact and talk about what they read.
“It’s a great way to make friends and a great way to meet other people,” Escobedo said.
The next Speed Book Sharing is planned for National Library Week, which begins April 8.
