4 . I have a special place in my heart for libraries. I have for as long as I can remember. I was always an enthusiastic reader, sometimes reading up to three books a day as a child. Stories were like air to me and while other kids played ball or went to parties, I lived out adventures through the books I checked out from the library.

My first job was working at …

As I grew older and became a mother, the library took on a new place and an added meaning in my life. …

I always read ,using different voices ,as though I were acting out the stories with my voice and they loved it !...

Now, I see my children taking their children to the library and I love that the excitement of going to the library lives on form generation to generation.

As a novelist, I’ve found a new relationship with libraries. I encourage readers to go to their local library when they can’t afford to purchase a book. I see libraries as a safe haven(避风港) for readers and writers, a bridge that helps put together a reader with a book. Libraries, in their own way, help fight book piracy(盗版行为) and 1 think all writers should support libraries in a significant way when they can. Encourage readers to use the library. Share library announcements on your social media. Frequent them and talk about them when you can.

5 . For the past five years, Paula Smith, a historian of science, has devoted herself to re-creating long-forgotten techniques. While doing research for her new book, she came across a 16th-century French manuscript consisting of nearly 1,000 sets of instructions, covering subjects from tool making to finding the best sand.

The author’s intention remains as mysterious as his name; he may have been simply taking notes for his own records. But Smith was struck mainly by the fact that she didn’t truly grasp any of the skills the author described. “You simply can’t get an understanding of that handwork by reading about it,” she says.

Though Smith did get her hands on the best sand, doing things the old-fashioned way isn’t just about playing around with French mud. …

The work has also brought insights for museums, Smith says. …

Smith has put the manuscript’s ideas into practice. …

Back when science—then called “the new philosophy”—took shape, academics looked to craftsmen for help in understanding the natural world. Microscopes and telescopes were invented by way of artistic tinkering, as craftsmen experimented with glass to better bend light.

If we can rediscover the values of hands-on experience and craftwork, Smith says, we can marry the best of our modern insights with the handiness of our ancestors.

8 . For nearly a decade now, Merebeth has been a self-employed pet transport specialist. Her pet transport job was born of the financial crisis（危机）in the late 2000s. The downturn hit the real estate（房地产）firm where she had worked for ten years as an office manager.The firm went broke and left her looking for a new job. One day,while driving near her home, she saw a dog wandering on the road, clearly lost. She took it home, and her sister in Denver agreed to take it. This was a loving home for sure, but 1,600 miles away. It didn’t take long for Merebeth to decide to drive the dog there herself. It was her first road trip to her new job.

Merebeth’s pet delivery service satisfies her wanderlust. It has taken her to every state in the US except Montana,Washington and Oregon, she says proudly. If she wants to visit a new place, she will simply find a pet with transport needs there. She travels in all weathers. She has driven through 55 mph winds in Wyoming , heavy flooding and storms in Alabama and total whiteout conditions in Kansas.

This wanderlust is inherited from her father, she says.He moved their family from Canada to California when she was one year old, because he wanted them to explore a new place together.   As soon as she graduated from high school, she left home to live on Catalina Island off the Californian coast, away from her parents,where she enjoyed a life of sailing and off-road biking.

It turns out that pet transporting pays quite well at about $30,000 per year before tax. She doesn’t work in summer, as it would be unpleasantly hot for the animals in the car, even with air conditioning. As autumn comes, she gets restless the same old wanderlust returning. It’s a call she must handle alone, though.Merebeth says, “When I'm on the road, I’m just in my own world. I’ve always been independent-spirited and I just feel strongly that I must help animals.”