This month's Cover-to-Cover interview is with Nicole Cummings. Nicole is deputy clerk for the City of Monroe, and she also serves on the Monroe Public Library board of trustees. We sat down with her recently to talk about what reading and books mean to her.
What are you reading now?
I just picked up "Pretty Girls" by Karin Slaughter from the library last night. I prefer fiction-thrillers, psychological thrillers, murder mysteries, that kind of thing. Harlan Coben - I just started to fall in love with them.
What did you read growing up?
Judy Blume. I mean who didn't? "Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret." I made my daughter read it last summer. I said, "This is a good book; this is a book you need to read. It's important." That was the one that sticks out most in my mind. I also love Beverly Cleary. All the Ramona books.
Did your parents read with you when you were growing up?
My mother did, every night. I remember going to the library with her. We'd take a bicycle ride and then we would have a little snack, and then we'd go into the library.
Do you have a book that inspires you?
Gosh, I don't know if there's one that inspires me. I don't tend to read books more than once. When I'm done with it, I'm done with it. I put those characters away and dive into somebody else.
If you could be a character in a book you've read, who would you want it to be?
Oh my goodness, who would I want it to be? You know what - I don't know. Most of the characters that I read about are kind of scary, and I wouldn't want to be any of them.
Can you talk about a book that you were really disappointed in?
I started a book, and I don't know that I was disappointed in it. It was about a slave girl and it was just very difficult to read. I got about a quarter of the way through it and I just had to put it aside. It was pretty intense.
If you're not in the right frame of mind or the right mood to be reading something, you could totally take it the wrong way. Or, it can make you more emotional, you know, happy, sad. Books take you places.
Do you find reading to be more of a solitary thing, or do you like to discuss books with others?
It depends on the book. For a long time, my mother, my sister and I were all reading the Janet Evanovich books. So then we'd go back and forth and we would hash it out and discuss it. But it kind of depends on what each of us is reading. It's more of a personal thing, for me at least.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island with only one book, what would you choose?
You know, I'm going to say I would take the Bible because there are so many different stories in there and different moods, and different emotions from each one that I could go back to it just for parts of it each time. All your genres are represented in there.
Is there anything else you want to tell us about your reading life?
Just that I enjoy it. I have this love of books that I've had since I was a little kid and I've passed it on to my daughter. I started reading to her when she was still in my belly and she has become just this voracious reader. She cannot put a book down. I got home tonight and her nose was in a book. So it feels good to see her do that to pass that on.
- Cover to Cover is provided by the Monroe Public Library and is published the fourth Wednesday of the month.
What are you reading now?
I just picked up "Pretty Girls" by Karin Slaughter from the library last night. I prefer fiction-thrillers, psychological thrillers, murder mysteries, that kind of thing. Harlan Coben - I just started to fall in love with them.
What did you read growing up?
Judy Blume. I mean who didn't? "Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret." I made my daughter read it last summer. I said, "This is a good book; this is a book you need to read. It's important." That was the one that sticks out most in my mind. I also love Beverly Cleary. All the Ramona books.
Did your parents read with you when you were growing up?
My mother did, every night. I remember going to the library with her. We'd take a bicycle ride and then we would have a little snack, and then we'd go into the library.
Do you have a book that inspires you?
Gosh, I don't know if there's one that inspires me. I don't tend to read books more than once. When I'm done with it, I'm done with it. I put those characters away and dive into somebody else.
If you could be a character in a book you've read, who would you want it to be?
Oh my goodness, who would I want it to be? You know what - I don't know. Most of the characters that I read about are kind of scary, and I wouldn't want to be any of them.
Can you talk about a book that you were really disappointed in?
I started a book, and I don't know that I was disappointed in it. It was about a slave girl and it was just very difficult to read. I got about a quarter of the way through it and I just had to put it aside. It was pretty intense.
If you're not in the right frame of mind or the right mood to be reading something, you could totally take it the wrong way. Or, it can make you more emotional, you know, happy, sad. Books take you places.
Do you find reading to be more of a solitary thing, or do you like to discuss books with others?
It depends on the book. For a long time, my mother, my sister and I were all reading the Janet Evanovich books. So then we'd go back and forth and we would hash it out and discuss it. But it kind of depends on what each of us is reading. It's more of a personal thing, for me at least.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island with only one book, what would you choose?
You know, I'm going to say I would take the Bible because there are so many different stories in there and different moods, and different emotions from each one that I could go back to it just for parts of it each time. All your genres are represented in there.
Is there anything else you want to tell us about your reading life?
Just that I enjoy it. I have this love of books that I've had since I was a little kid and I've passed it on to my daughter. I started reading to her when she was still in my belly and she has become just this voracious reader. She cannot put a book down. I got home tonight and her nose was in a book. So it feels good to see her do that to pass that on.
- Cover to Cover is provided by the Monroe Public Library and is published the fourth Wednesday of the month.