It's Awards Season...

We have reached the time of year when all of our students' hard work pays off- it's the Library Awards Ceremony.
All of the students who have completed their Six Book Challenge, won awards in the Library competitions, done exceptionally well in the Reading Journey or have had some work experience with us, have the opportunity to come along to the ceremonies (Daventry & Booth Lane) and receive their certificates and, in some cases, prizes.
This is a really wonderful opportunity for students to feel proud of their achievements and receive the acknowledgement they deserve. It's also good for the Library staff, who put a lot of effort into the admin and encouragement of the various challenges. It's a mutual appreciation, plus there's cake!
Well done everyone and enjoy your ceremonies, wherever they may be... 

Short Stories

As our Short Story Competition draws to a close (Fri 28th March) and we look forward to reading through the entries, I thought it would be good to showcase some of the short story collections we have in the College Library.

Some people dismiss short stories as not as good as a 'proper' story or book. I disagree completely with this. For a start, when you are short of time, but still need to read for escapism, a short story can be the perfect answer. Also, some short stories pack more of a punch in their scant pages than many 800 page epics. Just think, Brokeback Mountain, Stand By Me and The Birds were all short stories originally.

I've highlighted 3 of our collections in the 'Books and Blurbs' section on the left. Why not browse our shelves and see if there are any short story books which catch your interest. Happy reading...

World Book Day celebrations

A big thank you to all who took part in our World Book Day celebrations last Thursday. It went really well, with many of you contributing to either the Book Oscars/Election or writing your own inspirational books on a post-it note and adding it to our own. 125 people voted in the Oscars and it would seem that 'the boy who lived' is still very popular with our readers. Here are the results:

Best Book: Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Best Series: Harry Potter
Best Female Author: J.K. Rowling
Best Male Author: A tie between William Shakespeare & Charles Dickens

The World Book Day site has lists of their own 'Writes of Passage' books, available on their website at:
http://www.worldbookday.com/writes-of-passage

Keep a look out for details of World Book Night, which will be on April 23rd 2014. Keep on reading...

The Oscars and books...

Did you all watch the Oscars the other night or take an interest in who/ what won? Quite a few of the films which were up for nomination in various categories this year have been adapted from books (rather than original screenplays). The Library at NC have several of these books on their shelves, including 12 Years A Slave and The Wolf of Wall Street.
We also have plenty of other titles which over the years have been adapted into films. There are all of the Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Twilight and Lord of the Rings series, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Silence of the Lambs, Pride and Prejudice, Oliver Twist, 1984, Death of A Salesman and many more. If you've seen the film and think you'd like to read the book, why not pop into one of the Library Centres and ask if we've got it. The 'blurb' books on the side of the blog are also titles which have been adapted and which we hold in the Library.
Don't forget tomorrow (6th March) is World Book Day. Come and celebrate with us or do your own thing to mark the occassion. Happy reading...

World Book Day

It is World Book Day on March 6th and the Library would like you to help us celebrate it. The theme of the day this year is books that have inspired people and so we have created a display which will compliment that. We have some of the Library staff commenting on books which have affected them and we would encourage the students and staff to add to that by popping down any of your suggestions on a post-it note and adding them to our board.
We will also be asking you to vote in our 'Book Oscars', asking for your opinions on the following categories:

• Best Book
• Best Series
• Best Female Author
• Best Male Author

There may be a small chocolate reward for those who take part...
We hope to see you on March 6th to celebrate books and reading across the world.
For more information about World Book Day, visit their website at:

http://www.worldbookday.com/

Updates

We've had a fabulous repsonse this year to both the Reading Journey (over 130 participants) and the Six Book Challenge (over 500 joined so far). Thanks to everyone taking part, we hope you see the rewards of these schemes.
Keep a look out for Library competitions posters which will be appearing soon. We will also be celebrating World Book Day (6th March) and World Book Night (23rd April). Hope you pop into the Library to see what's going on. For more info about these two book celebrations you can go to:

http://www.worldbookday.com/

http://www.worldbooknight.org/

Staff Reading Journey

Library staff have been doing loads of reading over the last few months and some of them have been discussing their books on our forum- 'Book Chat', which is attached to this blog. If you want to chat with us then just click the tab at the top of this page and either post as an unregistered user or join (makes it easier to post regularly).
Also look out for our Staff Reading Journey posters on display in the Library. You can see whether anything we've read would interest you. I'll post some of the images on here in the next few weeks. 
Happy reading...

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a good break and managed to read a few books while you were relaxing. The Library staff have certainly been bookworms and I've got new titles to add to their Reading Journeys. Don't forget you can use the forum (Book Chat) attached to this blog to talk about any new books/ authors you've come across and want to share with others, or if you just want to natter about other stuff you've read.
Thank you to all our Poetry Competition entrants. There are some really good efforts and the hard work you've put in has been clear to see; well done. We are reading through them at the moment and we hope to be able to announce the winner very soon. We'll keep you posted.
Have a great new year and we look forward to hearing more from you on our favourite subject: BOOKS!! Happy reading...