The Book Nook, located on the 1st floor of the University Library, provides a curated selection of leisure reading materials. Reading outside of your academic pursuits can reduce stress, improve your vocabulary, expand your world view, provide a brief escape, or connect you with others who have similar tastes or experiences.
Take a break, browse the shelves, explore the latest topical display, and feel free to take any of the items home (after a brief stop at the Circulation Desk to check them out using your Wildcard!).
In addition to titles featured on the Book Nook shelves, there are many more works of fiction, poetry, drama, memoir, biography, and other genres in the NU Library collections. AskUs for assistance, or browse book recommendation sites provided below.
During January 2024 NU's Gender & Sexuality Resources Center celebrates its 20th anniversary of working toward personal and collective queer liberation and advancement. As part of the month-long celebration the NU Libraries debuts enhancements to its Leisure Reading collection - a diverse array of LGBTQ+ voices writing in many genres, purchased with funds from a Seed Grant provided by the Office of Institutional Diversity & Inclusion. Several of the titles purchased were recommended to the Libraries in response to a survey conducted in October 2023.
As a member of the NU LGBTQ+ community, or as an ally, we hope you enjoy the expansion of our Leisure Reading collection. If there are titles or authors you would like to recommend, please use this webform. Thank you!!
For research materials pertinent to Gender & Sexuality Studies, take a look at our research guides.
We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.
Ursula K. LeGuin
You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.
James Baldwin