Me as a human book
I love books and have been an avid reader since elementary school. When I was a kid, I often received books, rather than toys, as gifts from my parents and other relatives. My half-brother Andy used to work in New York as an editor for Simon & Schuster. I would get so excited when he would send me, his little sister, a new book now and then. I still have every one he ever sent me and recently read one entitled What Shall I Buy? to a kindergarten class at Signal Hill Elementary School.
Loving to read is one thing, but little did I know that one day I would become a book. That’s right, I was recently involved in a human-book project organized by my friend Rachael Rifkin. Here is the short version of the story. If you want to read more about the event, check out the story Cory Bilicko wrote in last week’s issue entitled “Long Beach’s first human library puts phrase ‘I’m an open book’ to the test.”
Meeting at the Long Beach Library’s main branch on May 31, 17 of us human-book volunteers gathered for our short orientation before being made available for checking out 15 minutes at a time by the general public. We were informed that we did not have to answer questions that made us uncomfortable or seemed too personal but could instead tell the reader that his or her particular question was not answered in our books.
Going to a reader board, the folks looking to check out books found this regarding me as a human book:
Strichart, Neena
Title: Life is a Bowl of Gluten
Summary: Meet the publisher of Signal Tribune, Neena Strichart.
She is a Signal Hill native whose father, a former Signal Hill treasurer, committed suicide. She married three times, once to a man 40 years her senior. Self-diagnosed— and later confirmed by her doctor— with celiac disease, she now lives a gluten-free life.
Subjects: Celiac, community service, marriage, newspaper publisher, remarriage, suicide, Signal Hill
Common preconceptions/misconceptions the Book has encountered: Some folks who read her paper believe that she is a Republican. Others believe she is a Democrat. As one person declared, “Neena is too much woman for any one political party.
During the event, I was “checked out” six times. Most questions revolved around my gluten issues, although one young lady wanted to know if I had a fulfilled life in spite of being childless. She was contemplating whether or not to have children. I told her that I get my mothering fix with my stepkids and with the other young folks in my life. Never having had my own children, I guess I don’t know what I’m missing— or if I am missing anything at all. Nevertheless, I hope I helped the young lady. Other folks wanted to know about the newspaper business and how to break into journalism.
Next time around, if there is a next time, I will put my experiences seeing Elvis in person 40 times as one of my subjects. I bet I get checked out a lot on that topic!
At the end of our experiences that day, Miss Rachael gathered us all together for a debriefing. The main thing I remember about that part of the day was when Rachael asked us what we learned about ourselves during the event. I quickly shared that I have always based my identity on my career. In other words, over the last 14 years, I introduce myself to people as “Neena Strichart, publisher of the Signal Tribune newspaper.” After being a human book, I have come to appreciate and value all facets of my life, not just what I do for a living. I am Neena, period. I don’t need a disclaimer! Thank you, Rachael and all the other human books. One of these days I hope to check you out for myself.
