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CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, News editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

So, what are you reading?

By Selma Bonham

It’s a common question in JOB interviews, a friendly greeting among colleagues and a subject for book groups. It gives first-gradE students and politicians a chance to boast. Those poor souls who don’t read much may scramble for answers, but book lovers love to share and jump at the opportunity.

In Mill Creek, we have many book lovers and book discussion groups thrive. The book group that meets monthly at the library is considering adding a daytime group. The participants meet in a small space between the stacks (near a tempting display of banned books), borrowing chairs, trying not to disturb other library patrons. This season they’re making difficult choices of books to discuss in 2010 from almost 200 books available in Sno-Isle Library book discussion kits, which include 10 books, discussion guides and brief author biographies. In August, they had a challenging reading and discussion of “Under the Banner of Heaven” by Jon Krakauer. The September meeting focused on life goals as they talked about Paul Coelho’s novel “The Alchemist.” Now the group is reading about life in a small mining town as portrayed by Jennifer Haigh in “Baker Towers.”

The other Friends of the Mill Creek Library Book Discussion Group, BYOB (Bring Your Own Book), is hosted at the University Book Store in Mill Creek Town Center. At the September meeting, we recommended 17 books in one hour, diverse selections of fiction and nonfiction. I raved about Harold Varmus’ 2009 inspirational memoir “The Art and Politics of Science,” which modestly and clearly covers his careers from English literature to medicine to a Nobel Prize and a global leader in microbiological research.

The University Book Store, led by Amanda Corr, is reading Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” a Swedish mystery involving a journalist, a hacker and a decades-old unsolved disappearance of an heiress. The Sno-Isle Library System lists the most borrowed fiction in August: “Finger Lickin’ Fifteen” by Janet Evanovich and nonfiction, “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcom Gladwell. Several well-read Mill Creek neighbors are reading “Less Is More,” edited by Cecile Andrews, about community cooperation, and “The Work of Wolves” by Kent Meyers, a novel involving Lakota, horses, family and land.

Maybe this anecdotal summary gives a clue about Mill Creek citizens, their diverse interests and suggestions for reading. So, “What are you reading?”

Selma Bonham is a member of the Friends of the Mill Creek Library. Her opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sno-Isle Libraries.