Have you ever tracked and counted how many books you’ve read in a span of 12 months? Setting a goal for reading a specific number of books is a popular New Year’s Resolution among readers of all ages.
Last year, in January 2023, the Carbon County Library System started offering a program for readers of all ages in addition to what they offered to their beginning readers.
“We already had our ‘1,000 Books Before Kindergarten’ program for preschool children,” said Maria Wenzel, director of the CCLS. “We decided to offer something for adults, too.”
All eight libraries in the CCLS participate in the 100 Books in a Year program, which is now in its second year. The proposed process was simple. Patrons would sign up at their local Carbon County library, take a reading log, and record all of the books they read until they reach 100. After they turned in their log, they would receive a completion prize. As the year progressed, however, something surprising happened.
“Our patrons kept on going!” Maria said. “We had no idea people would read these astronomical numbers of books! We thought 100 would be it.” Several patrons read over a hundred books and turned in more than one log.
The plan was slightly adjusted and now allows readers to turn in multiple logs. The 2023 Carbon County Reader of the Year Award was given to the patron who read the most books–a gentleman who read 239 books for the challenge! Whoever reads the highest number of books by December 31, 2024, will be awarded the 2024 Carbon County Reader of the Year Award
“All reading counts, including listening to audiobooks,” said Maria. “They don’t have to be books from our library, either.”
Healthy competition seems to be an effective tool for engagement in Carbon County, as the CCLS hosted a pi-digit recitation contest in March that had a surprising amount of participants.
“An eight-year-old student won by memorizing 163 digits correctly,” said Maria. “People across the county took part in our Pi Day Celebration. We love the opportunity to foster science and math and to connect our patrons with our 510 nonfiction section.”
The Carbon County Library System consists of eight Wyoming libraries located in the communities of Baggs, Elk Mountain, Encampment, Hanna, Medicine Bow, Rawlins, Saratoga, and Sinclair. Find out more about their services and programs here.