Books Matter: Linda Crawford

March is National Reading Month, a whole month designated to encouraging Americans – and by extension Wacoans – to read! The Act Locally Waco blog is beating the drum for National Reading Month by hosting a blog series throughout the month of March, called “Books Matter.” Every day throughout March we will be sharing a post about a Waco resident and a book that matters to him/her.  Thank you to students from the Baylor Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media and professor Amber Adamson for help with this fun project.  To read all the blog posts so far, click here. 

By Bri Boland

Linda Crawford, author of “God, Destiny, and a Glass of Wine,” shares her love of books and change-inducing stories in the Waco community and beyond. 

After coming to Waco in 1989 from Georgia Southern University, Crawford began a career as an English professor and coordinator for the Integrated Reading and Writing Department at McLennan Community College. 

Crawford explained how she hopes her writing will impact the lives of her readers. 

“I want [the readers] to understand when they finish reading the book that you don’t just walk into that destiny that you want. You have to be specific. You have to do it on purpose,” Crawford said. “When they close that book… I want them to graduate.”

Crawford explained how writing changes the life of the author and the audience. 

“It made me remember some things that I have always known. It has made me more aware,” Crawford said. “It is one thing to write about it, but it is another thing to live it. And I try to live it.”

Crawford noted her favorite piece of advice in her published piece. 

“When you run into a negative person, keep running. That’s my favorite in the book and outside of the book,” Crawford said.  

This same sentiment is evident in her goal as the founder of The Anchor News, a local newspaper which began publishing in 2002. 

“The mission of the paper is to bring you just the good stuff…stories that build people up,” Crawford said. 

Crawford highlighted that books are vessels of knowledge and change.

“Books… I just think they are universal,” Crawford said. “If you want someone to change, give them a book that you know they will enjoy. I think one way to make a change, or one way to cause a change, is to give them a book.”