Oftentimes when I approach Adults to sign up for Summer Reading at the Bronx Library Center,  I typically receive one of the following responses:   Sure, sign me up; or, here’s my son /daughter, sign them up; or, no, I’m not interested or, I can’t, because I am in school and I have to read my school books.

With that in mind, I decided to compile seven reasons by some of our great minds on why Adults should engage in Summer Reading:

• Reading is the way out of ignorance, and the road to achievement. - Ben Carson
• Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. —Sir Richard Steele
• Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere. —Mary Schmich
• I didn't go to school much, so I taught myself what I knew from reading. —Doris Lessing
• Not all readers become leaders. But all leaders must be readers.  —Harry S. Truman
• There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. - Joseph Brodsky
• Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books. - Bell Hooks

I’d also like to announce that the Bronx Library Center is encouraging all adults to sign up for Summer Reading 2014.  Prizes will be awarded to the four top readers on August 23 at 2:30 p.m. at the Bronx Library Center.

Here’s how to participate: sign up online at summerreading .org.  Be sure to select your local library as the Bronx Library Center.  Read any adult book you like, in any language.  It’s fine to read books that are part of your current educational assignment.  You must log your books read into your summer reading account and write a brief review of each book logged.  (For those who do not speak English, please feel free to write your review in your native language).

For those who are technologically challenged or prefer to sign up on paper, please come into the Bronx Library Center where you can sign up manually and write your review on paper logs.

All books and reviews must be logged or submitted by Friday, August 22 at 5 p.m.  Each book logged must have an accompanying review by the reader.

Have questions? Please visit or call the Bronx Library Center at 718-579-4246, 718-579-4253, 718-579-4257.

During the summer, we’ll have 3 Summer Reading Meetups:                                                                                                                                                                           

Friday, June 20 at 2 p.m.
Join two librarians in conversation on Julia Alvarez’s How the Garcia Girls lost their accents (Conversation will be in English and Spanish)

Friday, July 18 at 2 p.m.
Join two librarians in conversation on Lloyd Ultan’s The Northern Borough

Friday, August 22 at 2 p.m.
Join two librarians in conversation on Adrian Nicole Leblanc’s Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in the Bronx

At each meetup session, we will highlight tips on how to find great reading recommendations from the New York Public Library.

In addition, on Saturday, June 28 at 2:30 p.m., we’ll have a dramatic performance reading of James McBride’s The Color of Water by actors David Houston and Debbie Starker in the style of radio drama.