Please help me welcome a fabulous new voice in romantic suspense! CJ Miller will make her debut in the Harlequin Romantic Suspense in September with Hiding his Witness. You won’t want to miss this one!
My Love of the Library
Since I was a little girl, I’ve loved the library. It was one of my favorite places to visit, especially in the summer. I’d return home with a huge stack to read poolside or in my bedroom.
When I met my husband, he had been living overseas for the previous six years. He was also an avid reader, hadn’t had access to a public library, and had been buying books by the dozens online. At first, he resisted borrowing books from the library. But I can be persuasive when I want to be, and eventually he went to the library with me.
He was hooked from our first visit. The library is a great place to get older books, try new authors, or try a new type of book. We’ve found authors we’d come to love from picking up one of their books from the library. Once they’re on our must-have list, they become auto-orders for new copies online.
My husband and I love our local libraries so much, that when a new branch opened in our town, we both took the day off from work to visit. The entire library was filled with brand-new copies of our favorite books. We checked out a stack, returned home, and spent the day reading. It was a great, relaxing day.
If you’ve never tried romance, or never read a romantic suspense book, the library is the perfect place to pick up a few books by various authors. You have nothing to lose and you might find you love it!
“Have you discovered a new author or
book at the library that became a favorite? Feel free to share the details in the comments. One commenter will receive a paperback copy of Hiding His Witness. Be sure to check back to see if you’ve won!
Riding With The Top Down 
Welcome, CJ! I loved the library as a child and ours in my hometown is on the National Historic Registry. There were these wonderful window seats all over to sit in and each overlooked Rock Glen, with a little river. It was absolutely stunning and the best place in the world to lose yourself! My mom would let me off on a Saturday morning at 9 and ask, “When should I pick you up?” I’d look at her askance and say, “Well, at 5 of course!” LOL. She’d leave me there all day, too. Some of the best moments of my childhood.
Sounds likes the perfect summer days!
I love to visit the library. I can browse for hours and always leave with a huge piles of books. I have found numerous “new” authors and always look forward to my discoveries especially when the authors have a long back list of reads. I also enjoy a NEW, new author so I am looking forward to reading your work.
Good luck and happy writing!
Finding a new-to-me author with a long back list is one of my favorite things!
I don’t mind visiting libraries. They help me get hooked onto series enough to want to read them all plus the same with learning new authors’ books enough to get hooked onto them and want to read their back lists including all of their books too. I like libraries that I have donated tons of books I don’t want to keep onto my local town library just to keep them in business due to them privately owned and not owned by the town. anyway without that town library I would have learned about popular series by various authors enough to get hooked onto them. I like having a library to get books.
Great idea to share good books with a library in need!
I have recently become an avid reader. I find lots of new authors at the library. I am also able to read older books which are no longer available for sale. The library is a great place. Love it!!
Finding an out-of-print book is discovering a treasure!
Our library is very small but we can order books from the main library a couple of cities over. Our library does have a table dedicated to new authors. I do check those books out. I lived in the library as a child. I visited a different world with each visit. I passed my love of libraries to my son, and now my grandchildren are avid readers as well.
The librarians at our library set up small tables all over the library with different themes, like cowboys, CSI, etc. It’s hard to pass by without perusing the selections.
Thank you, CJ, for reminding people about public libraries – librarians greatly despair that folks just don’t know we are here – it’s very disheartening to discover how many people didn’t even know they could borrow books from a library, or that one even exists in their community. Your column brightened my day!!
Librarians are the best. The ones at our local library set up themed displays, run book clubs, create programs for children, and so much more. it’s too bad more people don’t recognize what an amazing resource libraries (and librarians) are!
I discovered Mark Twain THE PRINCE & THE PAUPER, TOM SAWYER and HUCK FINN.
JRR Tolkien and THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy.
Alexander Dumas THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISCO
LM Montgomery- ANNE OF GREEN GABLES series
Laura Ingalls Wilder -LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE series
Leon Uris EXODUS
GORKY PARK
SHOGUN- James Clavell
DR ZHIVAGO- Boris Pasternak
Sidney Sheldon’s numerous books
James Bond books by Ian Flemming
Tom Clancy
Dirk Pitt books
Robert Ludlum’s Bourne books
Tim Dorsey
Lee Child
the list goes on…
Romance authors: Cynthia Wright, Cathy Maxwell, Kat Martin, Sandra Brown, Nora Roberts and Karen Robards
My parents were both avid readers so I was introduced to books and the wonders of a library at an early age. My children were too.
That’s a great list of books. Many of those are on my favorites list as well.
Welcome CJ and congrats on your new release. I haunted our local library as a kid. Very rural, very small town, very small library that smelled of must and dust and old paper. I LOVED it.
Our elementary school library had old books that were probably original to the school. Without them, I never would have discovered Nancy Drew or the Dana girls. I loved them!
Welcome and congratulations CJ! I loved my school library and also loved visiting the county library through high school. I remember picking up “An Old Fashioned Girl” by Louisa May Alcott from my school library. I LOVED that book! I recently spoke at a big library in Raleigh. Things have changed! Computers and modems everywhere and this library had a special smoothie they were offering for purchase!
Smoothies in the library – awesome. If my local library served coffee, I think it would be my new hangout. I’ve brought my computer there to work because I love being around the stacks of books.
Congratulations on your new release, CJ! I just LOVE the cover. Very intriguing! And I really enjoyed your post. What a great reminder. When our three kids were growing up we were at the library every week. Our big, beautiful library was destroyed in the huge flood that wiped out downtown Cedar Rapids in 2008, and now I am constantly zipping onto Amazon to buy print and e-books. My book purchases have gone up a thousand-fold since I became addicted to Amazon. But when the new library is open the end of next year, I’ll be first in line!
Even when I have a stack of books bedside from the library, my amazon purchases don’t slow down. My to-be-read pile is enormous!
Thanks so much for joining us, CJ.
Before the internet became the center of my universe, I used to call my local librarians with all my research questions. During one particularly weird bout of queries I apologized for taking up so much of their time and she said, “Oh no, this is great. At the end of every month the library system has a contest for the weirdest question and we always win because of you.” 🙂
Libraries are our friends!
Best of luck with your beautiful book.
Librarians are the best! They always have great recommendations on new reads.
Welcome CJ! I’ve been an avid reader since I graduated high school. My favorite books are romance novels. I just bought your book and I’m very anxious to get started.
Thank you so much for your support! I hope you enjoy the book!
Congratulations on the book! There are some nice books at the library by authors I’ve never heard of before.
Many moons ago, I discovered Lavyrle Spencer’s books at my local library and ended up reading all that were in stock.