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Booked for the Day

When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning

On Monday, January 7th, the Booked for the Day Book Group met to discuss, When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning.  Here are a few things we discussed during the meeting:

  • The group was united, everyone enjoyed the book. Several comments were made that even though it was a book about World War II, which is usually a heartbreaking subject, this story was very uplifting.
  • The pictures of men reading that were included in the book, and the letters from the soldiers telling the ASE committee what the books meant to them seemed to impact the group the most. The gratitude the men expressed over the comfort and distraction these books gave them was heartwarming. It was great to hear about a government campaign that really worked.
  • We liked that the committee who was in charge of choosing the books for soldiers fought against censorship to get the soldiers books they really wanted. Politicians, such as Taft, tried to ban titles just because they thought certain titles would influence soldiers to vote for Roosevelt. We felt that the ASE collection was truly soldier driven.
  • We learned a lot of interesting tidbits, why they stapled the books instead of gluing them, the emergence of the paperback books after WWII, how the Great Gatsby was rediscovered due to the ASE, the importance of the G.I. Bill, the cost to produce an ASE book, how the troops had to go to the Pacific after they thought they were heading home, how the strongest weapon in the war was Mein Kampf and much more. We were also reminded of the hardships these soldiers went through while away from home.
  • We talked about how the sorting centers went through the donated books and rejected over a million books because they did not send books suited for young men in the services. They received titles such as How to Knit and The Undertakers Review. One of our members related a similar experience at the library where she volunteers, people dropping off books just to get rid of them. 

These are just a few things mentioned during the discussion. Please feel free to add any of your thoughts in the comment section.

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