Mercer County Library Blog

The World Cup is coming to the Americas in the summer of 2026. It’s a great time for new and old fans of soccer to learn more about the beautiful game in preparation for the most exciting – in my opinion - sporting event in the world. This tournament will see an expanded number of teams, which means there will be more soccer goodness than ever. It’s also the last time that the world could see the two greats, Messi and Ronaldo, perform at this level. Soccer is a great spectator sport. You can analyze things and make predictions, or you can just get caught up in the drama and enjoy the spectacle. The World Cup can be enjoyed by the whole family. I have such good memories of sitting in my living room with my family and talking about the matches. It’s also neat to support the countries you have connections to by rooting for those teams. Here is a list of soccer related materials that are available at the Mercer County Library System: Leading: Learning from Life and My Years at Manchester...

The weather has taken a turn for the worse of late. It’s getting colder. There are plenty of days with some pretty strong wind. And there has even been a hint of snow. So this seems like the perfect time to be thinking about…..baseball. Baseball is generally thought of as a sport for three seasons. We’ve got Spring Training, the Dog Days of Summer, and of course, the Fall Classic. But winter and baseball? I think the closest we get are meetings. And only hard-core fans get into the winter meetings. But here at the Mercer County Library System you can think about baseball all year long - even in the winter. And that’s because we’ve got baseball books and plenty of them. If you type baseball into the search bar of the library’s online catalog, there are over 3,000 choices that pop up. As part of the MCLS collection, there are over 2,500 books available, as well as 262 videos that have a connection to baseball. There are also ebooks and audiobooks. And the material is for all ages, w...

Formula One racing has been growing in popularity in recent years, helped by the Netflix production Drive to Survive and the new Brad Pitt film F1: The Movie . What happens in the sport? Read on for an introduction to many things F1. The field of cars is made up of 10 teams, with two cars and two drivers per team. Even though the driver’s number is somewhere on the car, it can be difficult to tell who is who. Luckily each car has a “T-camera” (named thusly due to its shape) behind the driver’s head. The camera is either black or bright yellow, and this differentiator stays the same for the entire season. So, at a glance, you could tell that the particular red Ferrari you see is either Charles Leclerc (black camera) or Lewis Hamilton (yellow camera). Two other prominent roles are Team Principal and Race Engineer. The Team Principal is the boss of the team, sometimes he’ll get on the radio to the driver directly; usually he simply oversees all that goes on with the team. Some are more ...

Hi all, Tech Guru here with a post about something very low tech. For as long as I can remember, my best friend and I have enjoyed watching baseball together. There are memories of afternoons on a phone with her while we both watch a Yankees game, summers on hard plastic seats watching Trenton Thunder games, a road trip to Fenway in a torrential downpour, subway rides to and from Yankee Stadium, and taking our Cubs-loving-parents to a Phillies-Cubs game at Citizens Bank Park. No matter where I watch a baseball game, I’m reminded about why I love the game so much. It makes you slow down and really be in the moment. Part of that is the low tech use of a pencil to keep score while watching the game. Over the years, I have tried my hand at keeping score, never getting past a K means a batter struck out swinging and a reverse K means the batter struck out while looking. You may be asking yourself why would someone need to keep score? There are digital screens everywhere telling you the s...

“Why would you do that?” was my friend’s response to hearing that I want to run a marathon in April of 2025. We had done a single semester of track & field together back in high school, where I had 1. Been rejected from the cross-country squad because I was too slow during tryouts and 2. Consistently finished last in every single track meet after joining the sprinting squad instead. Both of us ended up leaving the team after one semester to focus on orchestra. Fast-forward to today, I’ve been running consistently for about four years, having started during the COVID lockdown. Easy explanation: I do it because I love it. Boring explanation: I do it because it helps me stay healthy. Lukewarm explanation: I do it so I have something to small-talk about at work that isn’t too personal. Too personal explanation: I do it because I got off of antidepressants and I needed something to fill that void. Weird explanation: I do it because my favorite author wrote a running memoir and I wanted...

There seems to be a line of thinking in our society that sports and the arts exist on two opposite sides of the spectrum of the human experience. I found it very interesting when I read a quote from a sports photography editor in which he said that “photos of athletes playing sports are a dime a dozen.” The photos that he looks for, and the ones that make him money, are the ones that show a human element that gives insight into the athlete’s life. Here at the Mercer County Library System, we offer a combination of the world of storytelling and the world of sports through our great collection of sports memoirs and biographies. Give them a chance! Great stories are everywhere! Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe by David Maraniss ISBN: 9781476748412 Summary: “Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. He won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, was an All-Amer...

As long as you’re not asking me to run more than three miles or spend more than an hour pulling weeds, I’m generally up for a challenge. That’s why my interest piqued when, at the start of the year, the Mercer County Library System introduced the 2023 Reading Challenge. The idea is to read 25 books over the course of the year, with one book falling into each of the established 24 categories, plus one bonus category in the challenge. Some of the categories might seem easier than others to accomplish, such as reading a book on the New York Times Bestsellers list or a book published this year. But others, such as a book of poetry or the health, fitness or self-help category are tougher - at least for me. To me, one of the best aspects of the Reading Challenge is it takes you out of your comfort zone and helps you discover new genres you might not otherwise read. Normally I would not think about picking up a book of poetry or a graphic novel, but thanks to the challenge I’ve done both....

National Bike Month was established in 1956 by the League of American Bicyclists to promote the benefits of bike riding and to advocate for a Bicycle Friendly America. [1] The benefits of bicycling range from leisure, fitness, and cutting commuting costs, to helping create a healthier planet. With so many reasons to love biking, why not give it a try? If you are in need of a bike or have one you’d like to donate, the Boys and Girls Club of Mercer County runs a bike exchange where donated bikes are repaired and resold to the public. For more information, please visit: https://www.bgcmercer.org/bgc-bike-exchange There are many great biking trails in Mercer County, most of which are listed below! The Mercer County Library System also has books about the benefits of biking, the history of the bicycle, and manuals to help you keep your bike in top shape. Local biking trails Mercer County Parks—including Mercer County Park, Mercer Meadows and Baldpate Mountain—have biking trails for all ...