Manchester City Library

Our first Guitar Hero Tournament season is underway for teens in grades 6-12. Compete at the library September 25th from 3:30-5:30 in the Winchell Room. Participants receive 25 points for showing up plus 50 points if they come in third, 75 points for second and the winner receives 100 points! The top three finishers after our December event will win prizes. For more information or to suggest a prize that you would like to win contact our Teen Librarian, Kate Norton.  Registration for this event is required.

Contact:
Kate Norton, knorton@manchesternh.gov, AIM: katehwtt, 624-6550 x 342.

Beginning July 1, 2008, the library is changing the overdue fees for some of our items. The new fees will be:

• $0.25 a day ($5 max) on books, CDs, cassettes, and periodicals
• $1.00 a day ($10 max) on framed prints.

All other fines will remain the same.

Courtesy of our seasonal newsletter for Summer 2008.

The West Community Library will be closing today at 5:30pm.

I’m always interested in websites that target certain hobbies and give hobbyists a place on the internet to communicate and share tips, questions, discussions, photos… whatever is appropriate. It used to be that we would only share our love for knitting with folks who also knitted and lived within a drive away. Now, with the internet, our communities can be based purely on interest and no longer restricted by geography.

The opportunities are way beyond myspace and facebook - people share music or radio, photos, fiber-arts, books, and now, gardening. My heart lightened a bit when the new community of gardeners emerged in my feeds last week. Currently in public beta, MyFolia “is dedicated to the art (and science) of gardening - from tracking your own plants, to seeing who is also growing the same things you are.” My third floor condo limits my own growing to 8 inch pots, but I plan to follow their blog and hope someone some open space will try it and let me know how it goes.

The Library wants your opinion! We want to provide the best possible service and to do so we need your feedback. We’re doing a survey to collect input to help us to reconsider library hours in both buildings, assess new wireless service, and expand web services. You can respond to the survey online and at the Main Library and the West Branch.

Diet Books

Now that Christmas and the Super Bowl (sob) are over, there can be no more excuses. It’s time to start that diet. The Library has the diet books that are the old standbys – Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach and the Zone. You can also try these diet/fitness books that may help get you get started on the road to losing weight.

Picture Perfect Weight Loss by Howard M. Shapiro

Dr. Shapiro uses pictures to show it’s not necessary to diet to lose weight –you just have to choose the right foods. Picture Perfect Weight Loss uses side-by-side pictures to show how you can consume the same number of calories by eating a scone for breakfast as you would by eating oatmeal with peaches, an English muffin with jam, cherries, corn flakes with banana, 2 slices light toast with marmalade, AND orange and pineapple pieces. Shapiro does the same thing with lunch and dinner, takeout food, snacks and desserts. The Library also has Dr. Shapiro’s Picture Perfect Weight Loss 30 Day Plan and Dr. Shapiro’s Picture Perfect Weight Loss Cookbook.

The 12 Second Sequence by Jorge Cruise

With Cruise’s method of resistance training, you can burn fat and shrink your waistline and all it takes is two twenty-minute workouts each week. The 12-Second Sequence claims to shrink your waist in 2 weeks with a resistance exercises that are slowed down to a 10-second motion and 2-second motionless hold, which act to increase metabolism. This book also includes diet recommendations.

The G.I. Handbook: How the Glycemic Index Works by Barbara Ravage

This book ranks foods according to the effect they have on blood sugar, which is the basis of the South Beach and the Atkins Diet. The G.I. Handbook does a good job of explaining in plain language the science behind low-carb diets and helps construct a diet that is not as extreme as some low-carb fads.

Ultrametabolism by Mark Hyman

Dr. Mark Hyman based the weight loss plan he calls Ultrametabolism on nutrigenomics –the science of how food talks to our genes. Food contains information and instructions for our bodies –eat the right foods and send instructions of weight loss and health; eat the wrong foods and send messages of weight gain and disease. Dr. Hyman suggests that we should eat omega-3 fatty acids, avoid gluten to boos thyroid production and detoxify the body so that the liver can work properly. Ultrametabolism includes a six week plan with menus and recipes that includes phase 1 that detoxifies the body and phase 2 that rebalances the metabolism.

Don’t forget that the libraries are closed on Monday, February 18th for President’s Day.