Princeton Library Lounge

Tucked away in a pleasant, comfortable, quiet room in a corner of the first floor of the library is a special collection of books called the Christopher Reeve Collection. It includes books on film, theater and television and is named for the famous actor who happened to grow up in Princeton. Funding comes from a special grant from the Friends of the Library.

The collection is varied—wonderful coffee table books, collections of plays, information for the budding actor, director, screenwriter and filmmaker, biographies of famous people in the entertainment world, and more.

Here are just a few examples:

1001 movies you must see before you die
A century of movie posters : from silent to art house
Cinema year by year : the complete illustrated history of film
Broadway musicals : the 101 greatest shows of all time
Lew Hunter's screenwriting 434
The working director : how to arrive, thrive, and survive in the director's chair
Breaking into acting for dummies

Give yourself a special treat, and also discover a room that you may not know is there. The Welcome Desk librarian will be glad to point you in the right direction.

Submitted by Jane Brown.

The demise of magazines has been predicted for quite some time. So why don’t they go away? Why hasn’t the availability of the same content on the internet made them disappear?

I think for the same reason that TV was not the end of radio. Just because someone has a TV doesn’t mean that she doesn’t listen to the radio. In fact, it now seems silly that anyone ever thought TV would end radio—they are two such different media, with two such different purposes. The same is true of print magazines and internet content. Each has something to offer the person who wishes to be informed or entertained. Also, success is about advertising, and magazines (the successful ones) have been able to point their advertising effectively to niche markets.

But whatever the reason, a glossy, colorful magazine is just plain irresistible. A glimpse into our magazine area, where there are approximately 300 glossy colorful magazines, is enough to understand why they are scattered all over the library by closing time.

Our magazines run the gamut. Take a look:

Submitted by Jane Brown.