Where Do All the Wonders & Marvels Books Go?

By Janice Haithcoat

When Holly Tucker, Editor of Wonders & Marvels, asked me to be an associate editor of the site last spring, I had no idea of the wonderful outcomes as a result of my saying “yes.” Number one has been the absolute excitement of receiving, on some days, 8-10 newly published books in my mailbox. To a person who is all about holding the printed page in her hands, this in itself is just pure bliss. As the Wonders and Marvels site states, these are definitely books for the “curious mind who loves History, its Odd Stories and Good Reads.” For me, this is as good as any birthday or Christmas gift ever!

Now for those of you who may wonder just how these books have been routed to my address, the process goes like this: Holly and others peruse a variety of publishing house’s seasonal catalogues and request the titles that would seem to best fit the Wonders & Marvels site (I have been fortunate to share in this selection process). As one of the associate editors, within a short period of time, I then begin receiving some of the selected books in the mail. As these books are received, I enter each one in the W&M “Mailbox Monday” listing. Then, if the book seems to be one that would be of special interest to the W&M readers, the title is entered in “Request a Guest Post” – which means the author is then contacted and requested to write a short piece for the W&M site that he/she feels will interest readers further in the book.

When the books are so catalogued, then what do we do with all these books? I live in a small rural community that has one library which serves both our town and county. As you can imagine, our library is a major hub of our community. When I asked (at Holly’s suggestion) our librarian if she would like these books to add to the library’s collection, she had no idea the volume of material she was saying “yes” to. Our small library now would probably rival any large city library with the gifting of these newly published books – and all courtesy of the W&M editor, Holly Tucker!

Our librarian was speechless as I unloaded the first car trunkful of Wonders and Marvels books (you readers of the site know the wonderful variety of all the titles) and she continues to be overwhelmed with each new delivery. When asked for comments concerning this article, she stated that she has received lots of positive comments about the unusual variety of all these new books. She laughed that while some patrons might wonder about the need of a book on the “art of chariot racing” in our area, you never know when someone may be researching that very subject, brings a request to the library and surprise, we have it available.

On a recent visit to our library, I took these photos and estimated that at least 50% of these “new books” were donations from Wonder & Marvels. (These new books go out so quickly, it is difficult to know just how many are currently in circulation.)

It is great to be a part of such a fascinating site as Wonders & Marvels. I feel I can speak for our library in sending Wonders & Marvels editor Holly Tucker a huge “thank you” for being so generous to our entire community through the donation of these wonderful books. The books listed on the W&M site cover such a vast variety of interests that any reader could receive enough information to fill their “books to read” list for many months. And we, at our local library, are fortunate that our shelves (and our minds) are being filled with such wonderful stories of “History, its Odd Stories and Good reads.” Thanks so much, Holly!