This winter, give yourself permission to read a book (or two or three)! With Preus Library’s Hot Reads for Cold Nights winter reading program, you could win fun prizes simply by reading for fun.
Discover a new comfortable reading spot (or revisit an old favorite), push away all stress-filled and anxious distractions, and let the story take over for a while. These days, we all need just-for-fun reading more than ever.
How do I sign up?
Signing up is simple. Sign-up online or in-person at the Preus Library circulation desk. The program is open to all students, faculty, and staff, on or off campus.
All participants will receive a bookmark, hot cocoa, and a free ticket for the prize drawings. If you are participating from off-campus, goodies and prizes will be sent to your on-campus mail address to await your return.
How do I earn prizes?
Each of the following activities awards a prize drawing ticket:
- Sign up.
- Read a book for fun and tell [email protected].
- Submit a book review for a completed read. (With your permission, Preus Library may share submitted book reviews on printed suggestion cards or social media.)
You may complete as many books and book reviews as you choose. The more you participate, the more likely it is for you to win!
Any book for fun (not for class or work) completed during winter break or J-term counts toward earning prize drawing tickets. Genre doesn’t matter. Nobody is a book snob here.
When are the prize drawings?
Prize drawings will be held each week during J-term, with grand prizes drawn at the end of the month. Prizes will be sent to your on-campus mail address.
- Weekly prize drawings on Fridays:
- January 7th -- congratulations to Abigail Slininger and Amy Webb!
- January 14th -- congratulations to Jennifer Achenbach and Madison Chesky!
- January 21st -- congratulations to Josie Meyer and Anastasia Baldus!
- Grand prize drawings: Monday, January 24th
- Congratulations to Jennifer Achenbach, Amy Webb, and Jennifer Folstad!
Weekly prizes include Preus Library travel mugs, Hot Reads for Cold Nights squirrel mugs, and reading log journals. The grand prizes include a cozy Luther College sweatshirt blanket, Norse scarf, and a Julia Gash design tote bag.
You must be registered in order to win prizes. If you win a weekly prize, you are no longer eligible for another weekly prize, but you could still potentially win one of the grand prizes.
But I'm so busy with work and classes! Why spend valuable time reading for fun?
Reading boosts self-esteem and produces feelings of confidence, self-worth, and accomplishment. Regular readers are more likely to be exposed to ideas and experiences not their own, which creates greater opportunities for empathy and respect for others. Reading can also reduce feelings of stress, anxiety, loneliness, and depression.
Recreational reading supports the needs of whole persons. Surveys by the National Endowment for the Arts illustrate how readers of literature have significantly higher rates of civic and cultural engagement than non-readers. The benefits of just-for-fun reading don’t end there. Just-for-fun reading hones many of the same reading skills as those needed for “heavy” required reading assignments. Good thinkers are good readers.
But don’t just listen to us. Go choose your own book and remind yourself what it feels like to read for fun!
