Washington library holds first of monthly ‘book tastings’

Visitors to the Washington public library Saturday were treated to samples of its works in an informal event the building called a “book tasting.”

“People can come in and they’re able to read the reviews that we’ve had done on these books,” adult services librarian Tammy Valentine said. “It’s a fun way to look at different books and decide if they would choose to read (the) book or not … so people can better choose their next read.”

The reviews were written by the library’s reader advisory group, a team of six people Valentine said had been in the works since before the pandemic, but only got rolling recent as cases slowed down.

“When I was hired for this job … I needed help featuring some of the titles,” she said. “I asked a handful of people if they’d be interested in being a readers’ adviser. It was a no-pressure situation: read what you like, write what you like, write to the next patron. It’s not an academic review, it’s one reader to another … the goal was to launch the readers’ advisory group in a way I hadn’t been able to before.”

Valentine said was this would hopefully be the first of many regular events.

“My plan is to have a book tasting every month on a Saturday,” she said. “This month it featured the readers’ advisory group, another month it could be a specific author, or a section of books from non-fiction. I’m hoping it will be a fun thing and as the months pass people will get used to this and they’ll just pop in and see what’s going on that month.”

The tastings will have one constant: Valentine wants them to stay casual.

“Some book tastings are much more structured and formal,” she said. “You sign up to go to this program, and everybody has so much time looking at a book and deciding if it’s something they’d like … what we’re going to do is something more informal. Because it’s on a Saturday, I want people to not have that pressure. They can just come in and enjoy looking at the different titles.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com