Cold and snow doesn't keep book deliverer from her appointed rounds

Pat Walther is a regular patron of the Carson City Library's Home Bound Services, which offers book deliveries to people who can't get to the library.

It's a big change for a woman who has traveled most of the world in her day.

"I've been on six of seven continents," she said, adding she didn't ask for travel books. "I could write some."

The 82-year-old Carson City woman prefers Clive Cussler underwater adventure stories or histories.

"I liked '1421,'" she said. "From China they went all around the world."

She is also a Princess Diana aficionado, reading all about the late royal's life and death.

"It made me throw up," she said. "My father was an Englishman, and he was a guard, and I was thinking how he would feel about it."

The book delivery program, sort of a monthly Meals on Wheels for the soul and mind, enriches the lives of about a dozen area elderly or disabled residents.

Sandy DeVaney, senior librarian assistant, is in charge of the program and makes the deliveries the first Friday of every month, carrying a bag of books all over the city.

"The service is very well-received," she said. "We have had as many as 25 people on it."

DeVaney's been doing this for eight of the 11 years she's worked at the library, first overseeing volunteers, then, as the volunteers left, handling the duties herself.

She said she gives a list of categories to her clients, who use it to tell her their preferences. They sometimes give her a list of books, she said, or call in to the library to ask for specific volumes.

"Mostly it's folks who can't get here any other way," she said. "They don't have family around to take them."

DeVaney delivers no matter the weather, and Friday was out in the snow and slush.

"There was one day I think when we didn't deliver (because of weather)," she said. "Of course, I called everyone so they knew we wouldn't be there."

The service goes back to 1975, according to Andrea Moore, the library's community relations coordinator.

"People are always really grateful that we have it," she said.

Moore said books aren't all the homebound can borrow - audiotapes and books on tape are also available.

"They might have failing eyesight, so they might be getting books on tape," she said.

Whatever the order, she said, it is an important part of what the library can do even for folks who can't get there, like Pat Walther.

"I enjoy this service so much," she said.

• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111 ext. 351.