Nancy Pearl – Award Winning Librarian and Lover of Books
Seattle Branch AAUW May 21, 2022
We held our May meeting at the Watertown Hotel in the U-District and had a heartwarming time listening to Nancy Pearl talk about some of her favorite books (link to list). It’s an eclectic and interesting list.
She reads actual books, books on Kindle, and listens to books. She notes that when reading there is a relationship between the reader and the author. When listening there is a three-way relationship between the reader, the author, and the person reading the book. If you don’t like the reader’s voice, you probably won’t like the book, but other times the person reading actually enhances the book. She likes all forms of books.
Nancy Pearl rule of 50
Nancy Pearl has given readers wonderful options with her Rule: If a reader is under 50 years old, then consume 50 pages before dropping a book. If a reader is over 50 years old, take the number 100, subtract your age, and this is the number of pages to read before switching to the next book.
We really enjoyed our time with Nancy Pearl, she is a wonderful speaker and really knows her books. She has a new Book Lust book coming out soon.
If you missed the meeting or want more of her insights, try looking up Book Lust with Nancy Pearl on Google or YouTube to hear her recommendations and interviews with other authors.
We held our own DEI book exchange where those attending brought books that have some angle on Diversity Equity and Inclusion that they wanted to loan or pass on to other readers. We will continue this exchange at our in-person meetings in the future.
Annual Meeting: Prior to Nancy Pearl speaking, we held our annual meeting where we re-elected Barbara Sando as our Finance Vice President and Robin Hendricks as our Membership Vice President. Both were elected by acclimation of the members present.
Info on Nancy Pearl:
Both personally and professionally, Nancy Pearl’s life has been shaped by her love of books and reading. Inspired by her childhood librarians, she went on to become a librarian herself, receiving her MLS from the University of Michigan in 1967 and working in the public library systems in Detroit, Tulsa, and Seattle. She retired as the Executive Director of the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library and went on to write the “Book Lust” series, four titles filled with recommendations of good books to read.
The National Book Foundation, which presents the National Book Awards, gave Nancy Pearl the 2021 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. She also was named the 2021 Librarian of the Year by the Library Journal.
She is the creator of the internationally recognized community reads program, which began in 1998 as “If All Seattle Read the Same Book” and was the inspiration for the Archie McPhee “Librarian Action Figure.” Her many awards and honors include being named the 50th recipient of the Woman’s National Book Association Award in 2004, receiving the 2021 Librarian of the Year Award from Library Journal, and receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. In 2021, the National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards, named her the recipient of its 2021 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.
She speaks about the pleasures of reading to literacy organizations, libraries, and community groups throughout the world and comments on books regularly on KWGS, Tulsa, Oklahoma Public Radio. On Book Lust with Nancy Pearl, her monthly tv show on the Seattle Channel, she has interviewed authors such as Terry Pratchett, Paul Yoon, and Sujata Massey.
Her first novel, George & Lizzie, was published by Touchstone Books in 2017. The Writer’s Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives, a collection of author interviews, co-authored with Jeff Schwager, was published by HarperOne in 2020.