By Jason Klaiber
Staff Writer
The Fayetteville Free Library aims to start the year off by getting community members excited to pick up a book.
Until the end of this month, the library will be taking part in mobile application Beanstack’s third annual Winter Reading Challenge.
The Fayetteville Free Library is encouraging its patrons to keep track of their reading digitally at fflib.beanstack.com and altogether log at least 150,000 minutes of perusing anything from novels to magazines through January.
The act of listening to audiobooks also counts as reading material for the challenge.
This annual event, sponsored by Penguin Random House (PRH), marks the first in which the Fayetteville library has participated.
The library, located at 300 Orchard St., has conducted summer reading challenges in the past.
Leah Kraus, the director of community engagement at the Fayetteville Free Library, said reading broadens people’s views of the world.
“Reading facilitates growth for people of all ages—not only mental growth, but also emotional, psychological and social,” Kraus said. “Reading develops knowledge and life skills that are so critical in our modern world, ranging from critical thinking, vocabulary and analytical skills to improved focus, memory and concentration and even improved confidence, empathy and social skills. The benefits of reading are almost endless—and besides that, it’s fun to do.”
Hundreds of libraries and schools across the nation will be pushing their communities to read a target number of minutes or books this year.
The Winter Reading Challenge coincides with the Fayetteville-Manlius School District program Read Instead of Technology (RIOT).
Top-performing libraries and schools for Beanstack’s Winter Reading Challenge will earn the Golden Penguin and Random House awards.
PRH has pledged to donate $50,000 in prizes, including author visits and new books, to be shared among the libraries that rack up the most minutes through their readership.
The Fayetteville Free Library, which currently has over 11,000 registered cardholders, will be throwing a pizza party on Monday, Feb. 3 from 4:30 to 6 p.m to celebrate with anyone who participated in the challenge, whether they reached a certain reading goal or not.
“It is our hope that people of all ages will participate, whether you’re a student, a member of a book club or a parent reading to a child,” Fayetteville Free Library Executive Director Heather Matzel said. “January is often a time when people set new goals for the year, so we hope our community will make a collective resolution to incorporate more reading into our lives.”
