Confessions of a Teen Librarian: Downtime Reads
It is always about this time of year that I am *burned out*. We have summer reading starting off soon, I’m buried in projects for committees and work, and we won’t talk about the dust dragons roaming my house. So what do I do? I turn to reading! But it’s not the books that I should be reviewing for the blog, or books I should be reading for committee work, or even ones I should be previewing for the library. Nope, in my off-time I need a *break*, and I go away from the normal haunts to lighter, different reads. Some people might mistakenly call these “guilty pleasures”. Turns out I’m not so different. I asked some other librarians what they read, and here’s what they had to say:
- Graphic memoirs, especially adult graphic memoirs. I’m so eager to read Calling Dr. Laura or those by Julia Wertz
- Celebrity memoirs! I’ve loved Kristin Chenoweth’s, Portia de la Rossi’s, and Jane Lynch’s
- Last week? The Elite. This week? The Clockwork Princess and Let the Sky Fall
- HISTORICAL FICTION! Courtney Milan and Clara Kelly, also the Phryne Fisher series by Kerry Greenwood. I just finished two great books, Seraphina, and The Shattering by Karen Healey, as well.
- Any and all types of magazines- short articles and lots of color, glossy pages
- Chick lit! I just finished the new Sophie Kinsella book- and Beth Ciotta
- The Mortal Instruments series, and The Steampunk Chronicles
- The Gallagher Girls series
So share! What are your favorite downtime reads?
Filed under: Downtime Reads, Guilty Pleasures

About Karen Jensen, MLS
Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).
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irish chick -lit (marian Keyes rocks!and I am still a sucker for Tara Road)
City of Bones etc
and when all else fails – Captain Corelli's Mandolin – I still cry when Carlos dies protecting Corelli…and laugh when they finally meet again!