Week 4

I was having such a difficult time with Week 4--mostly wrestling with Goodreads in order to just get started--that I put it aside in order to move along. Trying again here.


My Goodreads account is several years old but little used. Revisiting it for this assignment had me looking at the site more closely. The chore of managing and maintaining an account to a certain level of usefulness seems large; I'd rather spend time reading than entering authors to follow, deciding on groups to join, and combing through comments.

I really like that hovering the mouse gets a window describing a title. This is much more friendly than leaving the current page. One of my favorite subgenres, historical fantasy, seems to be given little attention compared to some other subgenres. Recommendations, no matter where they come from, almost always fall short for me--they simply do not consider all the factors I'm interested in. I've had customers get very excited about the various lists people post, however, so Goodreads is a good resource in that regard.

Recommendations:

I'd recommend author Susanna Kearsley to those who enjoyed Daphne du Maurier's House on the Strand. They often feature a heroine who gets glimpses of other times, and there's a strong romantic element. Her books move slowly with excellent attention to period detail. Characters behave realistically even given the fantasy elements and touch of modern gothic.

For those who enjoyed Princeless by Jeremy Whitley I'd recommend the Enchanted Forest Chronicles  books by Patricia Wrede. They are not graphic novels, but the concept of a princess saving herself carries through to the series for somewhat older children. Cimorene runs away from her family's expectations for her, finds a job working for the king of the dragons, and refuses to be rescued. Both series are humorous, both princesses face adversaries and defeat them with the help of their wits and their friends.

Week 9: Assignment 3

It was useful to consider how nonfiction might be folded into an encounter that starts off about fiction advisory.

My continuing frustrations with advisory were not addressed, namely how to deal with the customer who has read everything, with the customer who is too impatient or rushed to be introduced to tools for finding books, and with the customer who knows so little about what he is looking for that it results in a stupidly broad list of suggestions, none of which are satisfactory for inexpressible reasons. When the process works, it is a beautiful thing, but some days are just frustrating.

Another big issue of mine is how much time to spend prepping for advisory queries that never come. I've gotten exactly two questions about westerns, for example, and they were both so general that they were easily answerable without deep knowledge of the genre. Urban fiction is popular at Towson, but I've never gotten a query about it much beyond where to find a particular author. Given those experiences, my inclination is to spend much more time with children's fiction than westerns and urban fiction combined.

This program also did some damage to my TBR pile.

Week 9: Assignments 1 and 2

My biggest question about book trailers is how people find them, i. e. what the marketing strategy is. If you already know about--and think to go to--the author or publisher's website or YouTube channel, fine. How do trailers find people who don't know about them or who don't follow the publishing industry? Your Facebook friend might Like a trailer, but that seems way too chancy. A library system posting trailers is preaching to the choir. What are the cost-benefit analyses? Whether a trailer consists of a few sentences from the blurb fading in over a generic landscape with generic music in the background or a teensy full-production movie, it seems like a solution looking for an audience. Movie tie-ins seem to be a better hook for customers than book trailers.

Useful for readers' advisory? For a visually-oriented customer, perhaps, but given that it takes to find and watch them, the moment may be lost.

Week 8: Assignment 4

The Cleveland kidnappings books should appeal to those who like to read thrillers and police procedurals as well as those who read the grimmer sort of crime novels. The real-life component ramps up the reader's involvement. Some of these books have been described as "compulsively readable," indicating a quick pace, and the observations of the captives of their captor give insight into his mind. The rescue of the women brings the same relief that a fictional happy ending does.

Working Stiff by Judy Melinek should appeal to those who read detail-rich, character-oriented fiction set in hospitals and morgues. The combination of grim reality and the author's sense of humor balance nicely, making a potentially gruesome subject less onerous and contradicting the gloss of television shows such as CSI.

Week 8: Assignment 3

Disaster/Survival
tornadoes 550s
The Mercy of the Sky by Holly Bailey


Crime (360s)
Cleveland kidnappings, e. g. Hope by Amanda Berry


Science (500s)
Wild Trees by Richard Preston


Medical (610s)
Working Stiff by Judy Melinek

Week 8: Assignment 2

I don't recall anything about mixing fiction and nonfiction in readers' advisory from library school. This was a good presentation that briskly laid out the merits of including nonfiction in advisory encounters.

Week 8: Assignment 1

The concept of narrative nonfiction is relatively new to me even though I've read nonfiction extensively for years; it's just been more along the lines of poetry, essays, and instructional books for cooking, exercise, and hobbies. Thank you, Genre Boot Camp, for a deeper look at nonfiction than I'd managed on my own.