EGVPL ASRP 2004 REPORT #4

One of the reasons we feel the participation this year was so much higher than in previous years was that the patrons had 9 different categories from which to pick 5 books that would qualify them to receive the usual completion award of a t-shirt. ( This year it was a nice deep red imprinted with the summer theme logo--a chef with the words "Dining with Dewey"). We also had a sign-up incentive of a white apron for the first 125 or so.

To earn the t-shirt, participants had to read 5 books: a Mystery or book of Short Stories, a Biography or a Classic, a Western or Science Fiction, Non-fiction, and a Romance or Political-techno Thriller. Mysteries were the most read (488) followed by Non-fiction (430) with Romances (323) next in popularity. Of course, some genres crossed over; 19 Romances set in the West were reported as Westerns. 154 books were General Fiction and 12 were "Historical" Fiction--166 in all. The next most-read category was Biography (155). 111 different Science Fiction titles were read and 93 Westerns (though, added to the Western Romances they totalled 112); there was also 1 Western Mystery. More Classics were read (69) than Politico-techno Thrillers (60--though some of them also qualified as Science Fiction or Mysteries). The least read category was the Short Stories (28) and some participants reported individual stories rather than collections (an area to be clarified if included in future programs).