Okay, giving something a shot here.
I was asked to help advise the York County Library System on their first-ever Give Day campaign, Literacy for Change (as I historically have a thing for organizing big fundraising chaos). But this time, it’s personal.
This summer I read The Wartime Book Club by Kate Thompson (you should too), and it hit me hard. I’ve been thinking a lot about community, resilience, and how books literally save people.
In November, I quit doomscrolling and started reading again—like, really reading. I downloaded the Libby app and started borrowing books like it was my job—from York County Libraries and the Free Library of Philadelphia (PSA: if you live in PA, you can get a Philly library card for free—do it. Their budget for e-books is much larger than York’s. Which I’ll get to).
Since then, I’ve read a ton of books (shoutout to my internet book friends for the recs) and using Libby has saved me $915 this year alone. That’s wild. Because for me, reading is essential. It’s therapy. It’s escape. It’s how I make sense of the world.
But here’s the kicker:
- It costs libraries up to $50 for a single ebook license.
- Sometimes that license expires after 2 years or 26 checkouts.
- It adds up fast—and libraries are concurrently losing their funding.
So I’m putting together this Wartime Book Club campaign because:
- The book made me feel hopeful.
- Libraries are undervalued and overworked.
- And dammit, I want us to show up for them.
If you’ve ever borrowed a book that changed your life—or even just got you through a rough week—this is your sign to give back. Join my team. Read the book (Borrow it from your library. Get it on bookshop.org. Or, obviously, buy it on Amazon.) Support our libraries on October 10 and encourage your friends and family to do the same. Let’s make some noise with this one.
oh bother. blog 