Nancy Pearl, Seattle librarian and action figure model, retiring

By Susan Gilmore
Seattle Times staff reporter

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES Nancy Pearl strikes the now famous pose of a librarian action figure model after her.

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Her job, not her avocation.

"I know this is the right thing to do, but it's scary," said Pearl, 59, executive director of the Seattle Public Library's Washington Center for the Book. "It's like diving off the edge of something into the unknown."

Pearl, who also runs the library's youth services department, said her last day will be Aug. 3.

But her retirement will hardly be relaxing. The author of "Book Lust," Pearl is working on a second book of her favorites, tentatively titled "The Morning After," which will be out in September 2005.

In addition to her regular Monday show on KUOW radio, she will be featured in a program on Minnesota public radio and will host a monthly author-interview show on the Seattle Channel. A "Book Lust" calendar is coming out. She hopes to volunteer for the library's literacy program. And she even has a novel up her sleeve.

Last year Seattle-based Accoutrements, parent company of the Archie McPhee store, created a shushing library action figure based on Pearl, and it's been a hot-selling item.

Pearl has become the face of Seattle's love for books. She founded the "If All Seattle Reads the Same Book program," which has been emulated by other cities. Last year she was awarded a Washington Humanities Award.

In "Book Lust," Pearl offers readers her favorites of the 1,800 or so best books she's ever read, and will add to that list with her second book.

Pearl has worked at the Seattle library for 11 years, moving here from Tulsa, Okla. Her husband followed four years later.

Before deciding to move here she said she sat down and made a list of all things that would be better in Seattle. High on the list was the observation that it's a place where people would want to come and visit. It was hard leaving her husband behind, said Pearl, "but I had that internal sense it was absolutely the right thing to do." She has no plans to leave Seattle.
 
Mostly, she said, she hopes her retirement means she'll have more time to read. Usually she reads two or three books a week and always has three books going at the same time.

She's very rigid with her "rule of 50." That means if you're 50 years old or younger, you have to give a book 50 pages before giving up on it. If over 50, you're allowed to subtract your age from 100 and that's the number of pages you have to read. "It rewards you getting older," she said.

She leaves the job with the advice that readers should browse library shelves and not just grab the top sellers. "I think the world of literature is so much more than the best-seller list," she said. "I'd love it if people would go back into libraries and browse the shelves. That's what people are missing. I browse and take down what looks good to me."

She also want to re-read some of her favorites, and said she'd love to write a novel. "I have some characters who are keeping company in my head," she said.

As for her current favorites: She loves "Gregor the Overlander," a new children's fantasy by Suzanne Collins

And she's discovered what she calls a wonderful novel, "The Hamilton Case," by Michelle deKretser, set in Ceylon, and Ann Patchett's "Truth and Beauty."

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com