Summer Reading

It is summer time and to augment my less than stellar teacher's salary I have taken a position in a local public library branch as a summer job. And I was assigned the position of “Summer Reading Coordinator.”

Thrilling. I received a copy of the local school's summer reading list, made sure we had all the books (or told the Librarian which ones they needed to order for the students to read) and proceeded to help with all the summer gift bags, prizes, and summer programming that is part of the job.

Fun? Wow. Some of the books are fairly decent, interesting, and slightly progressive. And then there is that dreadful “classic literature” like Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte that has the honors students wondering why they got into the program. (Yes, it's that dreadful to read and I've heard that from female students. Jane Eyre is often referred to as “Jane Error” - meaning it was an error to write, let alone have someone read.)

A side part of the program is the “Adult” reading program. Adults read books and then are required to post reviews of the books in an on-line site that the library system manages.

Why bring this up?

What a perfect place to post positive reviews of socialist and other left wing literature? We don't have to pay for it (actually we already do via our taxes) and it is there for others in the system to read.

Let us remember – In the 18-30 age range socialism is more popular than capitalism and in the under 50 range it is running almost equal with capitalism as a system. These are the age groups that are least impacted by the disaster that was known as the “Cold War” and view that era as long gone and past.

This is an easy way to reach out to people that may be interested and want to know more but may not know where to turn. And the site we are using allows books, e-books, and pamphlets or novellas (short novels – usually less than 100 pages) to be reviewed.

Now I'm not going to use every posting that I make on the system about a blatantly socialist book. But there are a few that I can see reading and posting on that I think others in the area and region might be interested in.

We, as socialists, need to find a variety of ways to get our message out to the public.

Why not use the public forums that the community is using to our advantage?

And for what it is worth – From what I have been told by a school book vendor – the Communist Manifesto is on the NYS reading list as recommended books.

Can you picture that getting into the hands of today's activist minded youth?

I can. Put it on a summer reading list and watch the gears turn.