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Up And Coming
THE BIG MOVE
February 2-3
PACTT Gala
February 9
Literacy Chicago's
Well-Read Ball
February 9
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Open Mic:
Michele Lurz
Michele Lurz is the new principal at Schiller Elementary School, where Open Books Buddies read with students twice every week.
How would you spend your last 24 hours if you knew the world would end in the morning?
Spend time with my loved ones.
What was your dream job when you were 5?
I wanted to be a star on Broadway.
If you could have dinner with 3 people (real or fictional), who would you invite and what would you eat?
Princess Diana, Harry Potter and Jane Austen. We would have chicken nuggets and French fries.
What was your favorite childhood toy or game?
Boggle.
If you had one superpower, what would it be?
Invisibility.
What secret obsession do you have that no one knew about before this interview?
I always have a book with me and read during every free minute.
What makes you laugh uncontrollably?
A good joke.
What book are you reading right now?
The Pillars of the Earth.
What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Mint Chocolate Chip.
What is playing on your iPod/record player these days?
Lily Allen.
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Featured Article
Open Books thanks the fabulous volunteers who signed up to work with our partners the Journal of Ordinary Thought and the Neighborhood Writing Alliance. Those slots are now FULL! Woohoo! Way to go, everyone! We know you will have a rewarding experience with this great group. Please keep Open Books posted on how things are going.
Some of you have said "I'll volunteer wherever you need me the most." That's wonderful! And here's our answer: "If you have any daytime availability, please sign up to help with the StoryBus and Literature For All Of Us." Those programs are most in need of volunteers right now and we want to help them fill their slots like we did for the Neighborhood Writing Alliance! But if you're only free at night, we say, "Hurry and pick a training time with Chicago HOPES. That's the only weekly program with nighttime slots right now. Please contact Erin to join up - thanks!
And speaking of thanks, a big one goes out to Annie Devine of Amate House and 10 student volunteers from St. Mary's College and the University of Notre Dame. They worked as our street team on a very cold afternoon, visiting colleges, universities, libraries, and neighborhoods around the city to post flyers recruiting volunteers and interns for Open Books. It's a BIG city, our Chicago, and we can't get the word out without help. Thanks so much, everyone!
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Happy New Year! We are ready to kick off 2008 and get back to work on all of the exciting moments that make up Open Books. There will be no shortage of thrilling events, meaningful volunteer opportunities, chances to move and sort books, mind-boggling blog posts, and much more! So make it your New Year's Resolution to get involved and support our important cause.
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Fundraising Frenzy: Schiller Book Group Project
If you love Open Books, its mission and what it stands for, now is the time to make a financial contribution to help support a life-changing project.
We have less than one month to raise the necessary funds to support a new project for 7th and 8th grade girls at Schiller Elementary School: their own book and writing group, directed and run by the award-winning Literature For All Of Us. Each week, 15 participating students will come together to talk about books provided by the program and to write responses, often in the form of poetry, to what they read and discuss.
But we need your help NOW to make this program a possibility! Open Books is now accepting donations to fund the $8,400 cost of the 16-week program, which includes weekly meetings with a highly trained professional book group leader, books, writing journals, snacks, and a cultural field trip.
So far, we have raised over $2,600 for this program. Track our progress and make a donation now to help give Schiller girls a book and writing group of their very own.
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The BIG MOVE
The time has come!
We have:
100,000+ books
10 storage units
2 days, and
1 warehouse to fill
Friends of Open Books! It's time to roll up your sleeves, and get ready for THE BIG MOVE -- 2 days of fun and frivolity where we move all the books we've been given over the past year from our old storage units into our wonderful new warehouse. Take a day off from the gym and spend it with us! Grab your friends!
Nothing makes moving heavy boxes more fun than if you can hang out with
pals!
Happening On: Saturday and Sunday February 2nd and 3rd At 2 Locations:Public Storage1414 S Wabash from 7 am - 5 pm Open Books Warehouse600 N. Albany from 8:30 am - 6:30 pm You Get:
Free workout!
Free food!
An Open Books t-shirt!Just Bring:
Yourself
Your Friends
and any spare book carts, dollies,
hand trucks, or movable flatbeds
you may happen to have.
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The "I'd Rather Be Reading" Running Club
Running is fun, but we all know reading is better. However, after poring over volunteer interest sheets, we have come to realize that this is not only an academic bunch -- you're an athletic bunch too!
Open Books is working towards registering as an official charity for the 2008 Chicago Marathon. Details will be forthcoming, and there is likely to be a Half Marathon fundraising opportunity also.
We need to hear from you! Would you be interested in training, fundraising and kicking some serious pavement butt for the mission of Open Books? Do you revel in burning shoe rubber? Have you always wanted to take your training to the next level for a cause you believe in? When running, have you ever thought, "Man, I'd rather be at home reading!?" Then THIS is the Running Club for you!
Now is your chance! Our getting official recognition as a charity for the race depends on how many people we can sign up. Right now we are just trying to see how many people are interested.
We are pumped -- please join us! Email Becca if this is something you are interested in!
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Out Of The Box: Three Fabulous Finds
In the process of sorting thousands upon thousands of books, there are always a few that stand out. Here are our three favorites for the month.
1. ALMANAC of Business and Industrial FINANCIAL RATIOS ~ 1990 Edition
 Sometimes -- not often, but occasionally -- we wonder where we went wrong. "We are opening a bookstore!" we say to everyone we meet. "Donations of general interest books are warmly welcomed!" And then, left for us in the dead of night, we receive a wet grocery bag...and in it, like a lone sentinel of doom, will be something like the ALMANAC of Business and Industrial FINANCIAL RATIOS ~ 1990 Edition. We have met a lot of fascinating people in the course of this adventure. But we know of no one who, on browsing through the stacks at a bookstore, would grab a book consisting entirely of headings ("Table I: Corporations With And Without Net Income, 1990 Edition. 2030 Manufacturing: Food And Kindred Products: Preserved Fruits and Vegetables") and tables of associated ratios ("Current ratio: 1.3. Quick ratio: 0.6. Coverage ratio: 2.8"). The fact that all this scintillating information is 17.0 full years out of date is merely the final straw.
2. Sector And Project Planning In Transportation
 "The benefits of research," begins this slim volume, "are greater the further they are spread." True, undoubtedly. But when the spread of that research is 40 years ago, as with this 1967 guide to the fascinating topic of sector and project planning in transportation, we feel that the benefits may be of limited value.
3. Tupperware Stack-Cooked Meals
 It is hard to say what first brought this book to our attention. At a casual glance, it is remarkably similar to the hundreds of other old cookbooks that come our way by the boxload and focus on appliance use (Fantastic Meals From Your Blender! A Hundred Desserts Using Only Your Can Opener!) rather than recipe innovation. It is a tough and crowded field, and a book needs to do something very special to stand out. But Tupperware Stack-Cooked Meals -- providing, as the subtitle jauntily proclaims, "Thousands Of Exciting Mix-And-Match Microwave Menus!" wins the challenge with ease. This is the first cookbook we have ever seen whose inside is a series of stacked flip cards. And, upon opening at random to one of each section, we cannot wait to go home to our prescribed mix-and-match meals of Carrot-Apple Medley, Enchilada Casserole, and Broccoli-Cauliflower Casserole, or Rhubarb-Orange Betty, Ham Loaves, and Deviled Succotash.
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