When it comes to spending her summer vacation, you might say that Michelle Panik is doing it by the book.
"I was just looking for a good way to fill my time and I thought of baseball fans, who go to a ballpark every day, 30 ballparks in 30 days, and I thought I would adapt that and do that for libraries because that's what I love," Michelle said.
So this summer Michelle is visiting 36 San Diego area libraries in 36 days.
"I do a library a day with photos, a few videos, rating the libraries and just talking about books that I find, the architecture of the library, the area - anything I see that is interesting," she said.
Michelle is currently studying to teach English as a second language to adults, but her library sojourns aren't necessarily scholarly.
"I'm just trying to go in and wander and just see what I could find and I'm reading books that I wouldn't have read otherwise," Michelle said. "I checked out an LSAT book. I don't want to be a lawyer, I just wanted to see how smart lawyers are."
This self-professed bookworm still has her first library card and her quest to support library use and literacy has the full support of her husband Bryan.
"I come home, usually read a passage from a book each night to him and he never knows what he's going to get," Michelle said.
Bryan and libraries aren't Michelle's only passions.
"When I'm not sitting and reading books, I do triathlons and marathons," she said.
Right now, Michelle remains on a steady pace to visit all 36 libraries by early September, and she maintains a website chronicling her daily treks.
