WINTER READING CHALLENGE It’s a glorious morning! The snow is deep and crisp and even. Perfect day to get out and catch up with Old Man Winter. You step outside and immediately you’re hit with a freezing blast of sub-zero air. Haha, good one, Old Man Winter! You’re afraid if you blink, you’ll crack the thin layer of ice that’s formed over your eyes. As you’re traversing the sidewalk, you find the Old Man has cleverly hidden little pockets of black ice under the snow, inviting you to test out your graceful slip-and-fall skills. Maybe you should have thought this through a little more.

Fortunately, the Mt. Lebanon Public Library’s Adult Winter Reading Challenge is there for you. Register at mtlebanonlibrary.beanstack.org/reader365, and from January 26 to February 28 you can read books, write book reviews and take reading challenges, all of which will earn you raffle tickets for themed book bundles.

Best of all, when your friends invite you to come outside and roll around in the snow with them until someone loses a finger, you’ll be able to say “Sorry, man. Reading Challenge.”

AUTHOR TALK The only thing Shannon Reed loves as much as books is talking about them. Join her on Thursday, January 29, at 7 p.m. for an exploration of why she loves to read, including first forays into the public libraries of her youth, misadventures with Pizza Hut’s Book It! Program and her 25-year teaching career of students ranging from preschool to her work running Pitt’s undergraduate Creative Writing program today. It’s all part of her nationally best-selling memoir, Why We Read, which George Saunders called “a lovely, funny read.”

Reed is an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh in creative writing. She is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker’s Shouts and Murmurs column. Her work has also appeared in McSweeney’s, the Paris Review, Real Simple, Slate and the Washington Post, among many others.

TWIN PEAKS DAY When the owls are not what they seem, the best thing you can do is gather together for some damn good cherry pie and a screening of Northwest Passage, the inaugural episode of Twin Peaks, on Tuesday, February 24, at 6:30 p.m. The library will offer refreshments, but you must bring your own log.