As spring flirts with us and the end of the pandemic is in sight — if you use a telescope — here are a few suggestions for your to-read list anticipating the happy day the library reopens.

“There are worse crimes than burning books.  One of them is not reading them.”  So said poet Joseph Brodsky.  Longmont Library has two of his collections (811BRO).   April was National Poetry Month, established in 1996 in the U.S., and  World Poetry Day was March 21st;  but don’t feel bad if you missed them — they’ll come around again.  What poetry form do you think is the most popular in the whole world?  (Answer is below.)

The Unquiet Englishman is a biography of the unconventional British novelist Graham Greene.  A  review in The New Yorker recounted the story of Greene’s earliest childhood recollection.  His nanny had him sitting in a pram, on a walk with his sister’s pug, when the dog was run over on the street.  The nanny couldn’t think of a way to take the animal home except to put him into the carriage with baby Graham.  Is it any wonder that Greene turned out eccentric?  Longmont Library has several formats of the biography, and loads of Graham Greene novels.

If you enjoy fantasy in your reading,  have you discovered the Invisible Library novels by Genevieve Cogman?  Dragons, the Fae, and magic, oh my.  Near the exciting climax of The Dark Archive, heroine Irene thinks, “This wasn’t why I became a Librarian. . . .”  Longmont Library has seven books in the series, and it’s best to start with number one.

This next book got a starred review in Publishers Weekly.  The title says it all:  Bringing up Bookmonsters:  The Joyful Way to Turn Your Child into a Fearless, Ravenous Reader.  The authors are Amber and Andy Ankowski.  And our sterling Longmont Library has two copies on order.

(Answer:  the world’s favorite poetry form is haiku, but how that was determined is not clear.)