Etc.

Well-thumbed old classics still irresistible to library visitors

National Library Week, which began Sunday, may remind some people to visit their local libraries more often. Many regular users, of course, don't need any encouragement to drop in and perhaps check out a new book. Others may return to search out an old favorite. The American Library Association, in fact, has a list of the most frequently reread works in library collections nationwide. The most reread novels, plays, poetry, and short stories, with their authors, as compiled by the ALA in 2004 and still shown on its website:

• "The Lord of the Rings" J.R.R. Tolkien

• "A Christmas Carol" Charles Dickens

• "To Kill a Mockingbird" Harper Lee

• Shakespeare's collected works

• "The Great Gatsby" F. Scott Fitzgerald

• "Pride and Prejudice" Jane Austen

• Harry Potter series J.K. Rowling

• "Little House on the Prairie" series Laura Ingalls Wilder

• "Winnie the Pooh"A.A. Milne

• "The Color Purple"Alice Walker