When you think racing in Charlotte and the surrounding counties, the tendency is to think NASCAR.

That's understandable, because this area is home base to a vast majority of the teams that compete in stock-car racing's three national series – Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Trucks. Dozens of businesses supporting NASCAR are here, too, and racing provides thousands of jobs for the area's residents.

Hundreds of thousands of race fans come to Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord each year for the track's three major NASCAR events – the all-star race and Coca-Cola 600 on successive weekends each May and October's Bank of America 500.

Even more will visit beginning in early 2010 when the NASCAR Hall of Fame is slated to open in uptown Charlotte.

But as big as NASCAR is around here, that's only part of the story.

If you love reading, a visit to one of Mecklenburg County's award-winning public libraries should be at the top of your to-do list.

The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, in my humble opinion, is one of our community's real jewels.

In 2006, it was among three in the nation honored for public service. In 1995, it was Library Journal's Library of the Year.

What makes it so good? Convenience, for one thing. The Main Library, at 310 N. Tryon St., is smack uptown, but it's only one of 24 locations, so there's most certainly a branch near you.

You can reserve books, movies and music on the library's web site, www.plcmc.org. Select a branch for pick up, and the library notifies you, by phone or email, as soon as the item's available.

But our library does much more than loan books. Branches offer a wide range of activities – craft projects for kids, speakers for adults, book clubs. Kids and teens will enjoy ImaginOn at Seventh and Brevard streets. They can check out books, make movies, do animation and attend Children's Theatre classes and productions. (The building is also Charlotte's first public “green” building.)

Each October, the public library brings in an impressive lineup of authors for the Novello Festival of Reading, a high point of the community's literary year. This year's speakers include Khaled Hosseini, author of “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns.” (More info: www.novellofestival.org.) The library also sponsors Novello Festival Press, a literary press that has put more than 300 writers into print since its founding in 2000.

By Pam Kelley