Week 3: Assignment 3

The first customer might enjoy Claiming Ground, another book about a woman's journey of self discovery, or the movie Babette's Feast.

The second customer might enjoy the vampires in the Sookie Steakhouse or Mercy Thompson books, but it sounds like the All Souls trilogy would move too slowly for her tastes.

The third customer might enjoy Through the Brazilian Wilderness, Roosevelt's own description of the same trip, or books about Ernest Shakelton's expedition.

Week 3: Assignment 2

Nancy Pearl is the Queen of Readers Advisory! She can talk in paragraphs about books! She talks more about what the books feel like than what happens in them, what the characters are like and how they fit into the environment of the book. I really admire her fluency in discussing books.

Week 3: Assignment 1

It was easy enough to identify what each reader in Exercise 1 wanted from his or her next book. Harder was coming up with suitable specific suggestions. The advice to read widely is solid. The Ice Station customer would probably go for any number of techno thrillers; the Eat Pray Love customer might enjoy other journeys of self discovery, especially those with a touch of humor; and the Born in Fire customer might want to complete the Born In trilogy as well as exploring other books with well defined characters.

Exercise 2 makes me think I perhaps strip a bit much from my descriptions of books in order not to go too long. I should summarize better. Exercise 3 shows a more specific way of approaching customers than "Are you finding what you need?" Exercises 4 and 5 sound like good ways to practice.