Get ready for an exciting evening! For more information on tickets to this event, please visit www.ticketswest.com. For more information on event details, please visit the Marion-Polk County Medical Society.

The Oregonian stated recently that “We read more in our spare time and own more books than most Americans, according to 2007 stats from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. There’s a healthy mom-and-pop publishing industry, and libraries here are among the most highly coveted in the country. Among cities known for being readerly, a 2004 study ranks Portland in the top 10 for its number of bookstores, newspaper subscribers and educated masses.”

To read the entire article, please click here.

Love to read? We’ve also got a great list of books written about our great state. Check them out (no library card needed) and happy reading!

The Sylvia Beach Hotel is a literary sanctuary in the form of a hotel that sits on a cliff overlooking Nye Beach and has 2 resident cats. This is the ultimate readers’ delight: no phones, radios, or TV’s- just 2 communal rooms with a fireplace overflowing with comfortable chairs and couches and bookshelves overlooking the ocean. Each room is decorated with its own literary theme from Edgar Allan Poe to Dr. Seuss.

There are also 2 dormitories for women and men in which bunk beds are offered for a reduced rate with shared bathrooms down the hall. This was fun, as I encountered a teacher from the UK and book lovers from all over the Pacific North West in this room. If anyone wants to lift their nose from their book, they can walk the 2-3 mile expanse of the beach which is overlooked by the Yaquina Lighthouse, inhale the sea salt smell, watch the waves lap up the seashore, and hear the chirping of the sea gulls.

-Jessica

For more information on Oregon Coast hotels, please visit our lodging page .

Being the book lovers that we are, we’ve compiled a list of some fabulous books written where Oregon figures as a main character. Because we love characters, I mean, dreamers.

I dig stories about people who leave their creature-comforts behind and set out on epic road trips or crazy journeys to experience a new part of their world. William L. Sullivan, a fifth-generation Oregonian, has hiked pretty much every trail in Oregon. His entertaining book, Listening for Coyote: A Walk Across Oregon’s Wilderness recounts his earnest and sometimes amusing search for true wilderness.

His 1,361-mile solo backpacking trek across Oregon from the westernmost beach at Cape Blanco to the easternmost depths of Hells Canyon took him two months back in 1985. He blends interesting facts with personal observations about the quirky folks he met and pristine places he saw. It made me want to put on my hiking shoes and hit the trail.

Listening for Coyote: A Walk Across Oregon’s Wilderness may be purchased here .

Here are some favorite books from some of our friends around Oregon:

“For me, Ken Kesey’s Sometimes A Great Notion captures the essence of the character and lifestyle of Western Oregon’s loggers in the mid-twentieth century. I grew up in a small farming/logging town at the base of the Coast Range, and when I first read this book I felt an instant sense of authenticity of people and place that I still feel at the mere mention of the book’s title.” - Merrialyce Blanchard, Librarian, Oregon State Library (Salem)

Sometimes A Great Notion may be purchased at Powells.com.

“One of my very favorite Oregon novels is Bernard Malamud’s A New Life, set in Corvallis, where Malamud taught at OSU for about a decade. Especially if you’ve moved to Oregon from a far-away part of the U.S. (as I did), you will enjoy this bittersweet portrait of a New Yorker trying to come to terms with his new home.” - Jim Scheppke, State Librarian, Oregon State Library (Salem)

A New Life may be purchased at Powells.

“I highly recommend Sheila Evans’ collection of interconnected short stories, Northport, Stories of the Coast. It is set in the fictional town of Northport, which is where the author lives.” - Sheryl Eldridge, Librarian, Newport Public Library (Newport)

Northport, Stories of the Coast may be purchased at Powells.

“Robin Cody’s eloquent Voyage of the Summer Sun chronicles his canoeing adventure from the source of the Columbia, in Canada, to the treacherous sand bar where the great river meets the Pacific.” – Beth McKinnon, Manager, Estacada Public Library, (Estacada)

Voyage of the Summer Sun may be purchased at Powells.

“Beverly Cleary’s books about Ramona, Beezus and Henry Huggins are set on Klickitat Street in Portland (Ramona the Pest).” - Jane Ahern, Youth Services Manager, Jefferson County Library (Madras)

Ramona the Pest may be purchased at Powells.

Here’s another list to get you started: Literary Oregon, One Hundred Books, 1800-2000. http://www.ochcom.org/100BooksList.pdf

What is your favorite Oregon book? Leave a comment and tell us about a book that made you want to visit Oregon. Or just visit us vicariously through a great story. That’s okay too!

- Jennifer