Nancy Pearl

Nancy Pearl is probably the most famous librarian in the world. There is a Nancy Pearl action figure. Do you know a librarian with an action figure?

As big a deal as she is in the library world, Nancy is so much more than a librarian. She’s an author, and a radio and television show host. She has developed a methodology for helping people to find a book the reader will like (Connecting people with books they will like is big idea for Lory and me). She started a much-imitated program in Seattle to get lots of people reading the same book at the same time. She is the real deal in the reading world.

I got a chance to interview Nancy on her book, The Writer’s Library. The interview was during the pandemic and was done on Zoom. I would have really liked to have done the interview in person, but who knows, without the remote interview maybe I would have never gotten the chance.

I think we had a good time. I know I did. While writing this I thought I should refresh myself on the interview. It has been a couple of years. I watched the approximately one hour interview and enjoyed it all over again. 

It would be hard to talk about favorite moments, because the whole thing was so much fun, but there are a few things probably worth mentioning.

There was a point in the interview when Nancy said “When you meet somebody who loves to read, it’s really fun to talk to them about books.” If you wanted one sentence to describe what Lory and I are doing with the podcast, that might be it. We want to make conversations about books happen.

Something else that Nancy said that seems relevant to what we are doing was “To be a great writer, you have to be a great reader.” Feels right to me. We are trying to promote the great reader part of this, but it is on our minds, that over time, we want to explore more of the writing side of the reader/writer relationship.

Something that Nancy said that I like a lot was that when you read “You can go anywhere. You can do anything. You can be anyone.” Reading opens worlds. Reading takes you places you wouldn’t go. 

Our talk led us to a mutual admiration of Anne Tyler. Her books are very character-driven. Nancy and I both look at that as a good thing, 

If you would like to watch the interview you can see it here.