Speed Reading, Behrbaum Style

Although Anita and Mike Behrbaum must be the fittest campus couple, they still make time to read. Anita and Mike have been teaching health and physical education at GRCC since 1990 and 1974 respectively. In addition to reading student papers, Mike reads to stay current in the ever-changing health, fitness, and wellness field, and Anita reads because "reading enables me to build perspective I can gain nowhere else."

Anita's book of choice is The Autobiography of Malcolm X (by Malcolm X and Alex Haley) which she read in college and a few times since. Anita says that the book "allowed me, on some level, to experience the life of Malcolm X which was eye-opening and extraordinary." Mike chose to be photographed running with The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm, "because Fromm’s emphasis on active love shaped his perspective on relationships."

This is the last of five special GRCC Read posters developed for National Library Week. The posters will be displayed in the library, so come on over and have a look at the originals! Many people helped make these posters possible. Special thanks to those who agreed to pose and to those who helped produce them, especially Julie Spiers, Ann Lovell, and Jennifer Dysart. If you would like to suggest someone to be featured in a Read poster for National Library Week 2008, please contact me, Brenda Philip.

Read with Rich

GRCC President Rich Rutkowski has chosen The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman as his Read poster book. Friedman, a Middle East specialist, is the New York Times Foreign Affairs Columnist and the winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. The World is Flat is in its 104th week on the New York Times best seller list.

Inspired by the American Library Association Read posters, this is the fourth in a series of five GRCC Read posters that we are unveiling this week. Julie Spiers, a graphic designer in the GRCC Publications office, did a wonderful job of photographing all our subjects.

Reading Instructor Poses for Read Poster

At one time Harry Rosemond was a professional football player, but now he makes his living reading, or at least teaching others how to read. Along with reading, Harry has taught study skills at GRCC for 15 years. Harry's book of choice is Becoming a Master Student by Dave Ellis, the textbook for Harry's Study Skills 110 class. Harry is currently a member of the Library Advisory Committee, and he is one of the friendliest people on campus.

Student Government Poses for Read Poster

GRCC's student government joined our National Library Week celebrations by posing for a "Read" poster.

How to Move to Canada: A Primer for Americans by Terese Loeb Kreuzer with Carol Bennett was the choice of Chief Justice Chelsea Fletcher (right). Chelsea plans on moving and settling in Canada. She describes the book as "helpful, to the point, and gives a great overview of how to immigrate and where to live. Calgary here I come!!"

President Amanda Brown (center) is "a huge Wizard of Oz fan" so she felt compelled to read the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire.

The choice of Vice President Cash Chen (left) was Sports Illustrated's 2007 NCAA Tournament Preview. Cash loves many sports, and in particular he likes basketball and March Madness. Cash appreciates the greater depth of analysis in Sports Illustrated as compared to television. Also, as an international student, he thinks reading is a great way to improve his English skills.

National Library Week -- Read Posters

April 15-21 is National Library Week, and the library will be celebrating with a new "Read" poster each day. You've probably seen them, American Library Association posters with celebrities such as Orlando Bloom or Hilary Swank posing with a favorite book. GRCC has its own celebrities, and one of them is Lee Semsen, who will be retiring at the end of spring quarter after 29 years as a librarian at GRCC. In the poster, Semsen is posed with the bible of cataloguing, The Dewey Decimal Classification and Relative Index or the DDC for short. Speaking of the Bible, National Library Week was started in 1958 by a group of publishers, booksellers, librarians, and journalists after a 1955 Gallup poll revealed that 61% of American adults had not read any books, except the Bible, in the preceding year.

April is Alcohol Awareness Month

April is "Alcohol Awareness Month" and Holman Library has recently added several new books related to alcohol. Most of these books will be permanently located in the Main collection; however, most are temporarily located on the New Books Shelf. Below you will see the titles, authors, and call numbers for these new books.

Twelve steps and twelve traditions
(AA Services) 362.292 T971 2005

Alcohol: cradle to grave
(Newhouse, Eric) 362.292 N548a 2006

Alcoholism in America: from reconstruction to prohibition
(Tracy, Sara W.) 362.292 T762a 2005

Alcohol: the world's favorite drug
(Edwards, Griffith) 362.292 E26a 2003

Buzzed: the straight facts about the most used and abused drugs…
(Kuhn, Cynthia) 362.29 K96b 2003

Alcoholics anonymous - big book special edition
(AA Services) 362.292 A3539 2007

Handbook on drug and alcohol abuse: the biomedical aspects
(Winger, Gail) 616.86 W769h 2004

100 Q&A about alcoholism & drug addiction
(Herrick, Charles) 362.292 H566o 2007

Nation under the influence: America's addiction to alcohol
(Peterson, J. Vincent) 362.292 P485n 2003

Alcoholism: the genetic inheritance
(Fitzgerald, Kathleen) 362.292 F553a 2002

Introduction to alcohol research: implications for treatment…
(Yalisove, Daniel L.) 362.292 Y19i 2004

Alcoholism myths and realities: removing the stigma of society's….
(Thorburn, Doug) 362.292 T487a 2005

Alcohol: a social and cultural history
(Holt, Mack) 394.13 A354 2006