Reading invites us to acknowledge complicated truths within ourselves and with each other. —Elaine Castillo
This site gathers, shares, and archives stories from Utah residents about reading and not reading. Stories are anonymous, but publicly viewable and accessible to those who visit the site.
Allyson Mower oversees the project as site editor. Allyson is Librarian for Scholarly Communication & Copyright at the University of Utah Marriott Library. She hosts two reading clubs at Marriott Library and loves talking to Utah residents about reading and hearing their stories about favorite (and hated) books.
Contribute Your Story to the Archive
Participation is voluntary. If you choose to participate, it will take you ten to fifteen minutes to complete the form. You will be presented with four fields. Questions will focus on your reading experiences. You can close this window or leave the site at any time. This will not affect your relationship with those overseeing the public archive. Neither your name nor occupation would be shared unless you choose to include it in the body of your submitted story.
By clicking the submit button on the Share Your Story page, you are providing consent and permission for your story to be included on this site. Site editors will review and edit content for typing errors only.
Your city of residence and professional status would be publicly listed with your story. You may have to reflect on personal information related to reading, personal interests, and private opinions. This risk is similar to those you experience when discussing personal information with others in person or on social media.
There are no direct benefits for taking part in this project. However, we hope the stories we gather through this public archive will help develop a greater understanding of reading and non-reading in Utah. Stories could potentially be utilized by Utah librarians to develop programs and services that support avid and non-avid readers in their communities.
The University of Utah’s Institutional Review Board administratively reviewed the project in March 2018 and determined that oversight was not required for the project because it does not involve Human Subjects Research as defined by Federal regulations.
Influence of Books and/or Reading It goes way back to a long tradition of reading in my family. Even when just reading, there was always a family policy to read whatever we wanted. I never had restrictions. Dinner-time was always time to discuss what we were...
Utah City Salt Lake City Professional Status Employee Influence of Books and/or Reading I've always liked reading a been a strong reader. That made a difference in my life. Elementary school tracked whether or not you were good at reading or math. I was tracked as a good reader. I've...
Utah City Salt Lake City Professional Status Employee Influence of Books and/or Reading When I was in the 2nd grade I was diagnosed as having hearing loss. The doctors feared I would struggle learning to read and might need to enroll in a school for the deaf. This concerned my...