Be More Bookish - Week 9, Assignment 3

All in all, Be More Bookish has been a positive experience. Some assignments have been more valuable than others, but of course every training can't address every person's needs perfectly every time. The work we did with appeal factors and reader's advisory was awesome and super helpful, but once we started to get into the teen websites and book trailers I felt like I wasn't learning much that I could actually use when helping patrons. There are a few subjects that it might be helpful to add for the future also, like books that are only released digitally and the small press/self-publishing boom of the last few years. Also, the fact that the blog itself wasn't accessible outside of the library made it extremely difficult to stay on top of the assignments, especially when I was out of the country for two weeks.

That being said, I really appreciate that a resource like this exists. I enjoyed the collaborative nature of the blogging, and I really enjoyed the exchange of information that took place within the branch between all of the staff members working on this. I feel confident saying that I'm much more prepared than I was when we started this, and that I feel more like a part of a community. As the Bard wrote, when he completed his basic librarian training: "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers (and sisters); for he (or she) to-day that sheds his (or her) blood with me shall be my brother (or sister.)"

Be More Bookish - Week 9, Assignment 1 & 2

I think the most telling thing about this assignment is that I had never heard the phrase "book trailer" until I started Be More Bookish. It's an interesting idea, and I appreciated what this article had to say about trying to reach more readers in an increasingly digital age, but I also appreciated how candid the Tribune article was in discussing the failings of the book trailers that have been made thus far. There were several that I watched that worked. The autobiographical ones in which the author has something worth saying about the part of their life that they've written about works well because it's extra information and it gives a humanizing element to an otherwise contained body of work. Most books, in other words, exist in a vacuum, but some benefit tremendously from a personal touch from the author. The example given in the Times article of Thomas Pynchon's book trailer for Inherent Vice is another good example; it's a stripped-down reading by Pynchon of the opening of the book while choppy footage of California beach life flash in the background, and then he sardonically suggests that the reader buy the book themselves if they want to know the rest. It ends with Pynchon bemoaning the exorbitant cost of the book. This book trailer is engaging, charming, and funny, and it works well even if it does go one for a bit too long. I wanted to buy a copy of that book when it was over. Finally, there's the delightfully over the top As Dead As It Gets book trailer starring actress Bella Thorne as a highly marketable goth-but-not-too-goth girl wandering through a graveyard, huskily posing shallow, cynical, and rhetorical questions to the audience. Finally, it ends with her trying to touch a boy and getting blown away in a puff of smoke.

This works because it's completely true to the spirit of the book. It's exactly the sort of thing that will engage the target audience and make them want to read the book. It goes back to what the Times article was saying about finding a way to engage more readers through technology, and I think that's what this last trailer does perfectly. Still, while I enjoyed a few of these trailers, the majority were pretty painful. I don't know that book trailers will ever be popular, but I think investing some more time and effort into producing a quality product could at least produce something that doesn't detract from the book.

Be More Bookish - Week 8, Assignment 4

Joy Harjo is an endlessly talented poet, and her prose reflects that. Crazy Brave is more than just an account of Harjo's life, it's a reflection of the depressingly still-present struggles faced by native people in the 1960s and on through to today. Harjo is brutally honest in her descriptions of the adversity and challenges that she faced in her life. The way she describes the abusive home life that she and her mother struggled through echoes a line from one of her poems: "You hold these scenes in front of me/And I was born with eyes that can never close." Her bravery and unwillingness to so much as blink while inviting the reader to confront her step-father with her gives power to one of the strongest narrative voices in writing today. Harjo's prose echoes with native storytelling tradition, as the places she describes manage to be simultaneously real and ethereal, plain and yet magical. Ultimately, Crazy Brave is a story about family and tradition, even if the family isn't the one you're born into, and even if the traditions are the ones that you make.



Chris Gethard is a comedian who proudly describes himself as a loser, claiming that the term "nerd" has been co-opted by the mainstream, and that losers are nerds who don't get to choose to be nerds. With a few minor birth defects, at least one chemical imbalance, and this anti-cool-kid zealotry, Gethard asserts that there was never any other job that he wanted to have. Well, except for professional wrestler, but he addresses that pretty early on in the book. A Bad Idea I'm About to Do doesn't offer any excuses or apologies for the ridiculous moments in the author's life that it catalogs, but it does invite the reader to celebrate everything that makes them losers and to find a way to own it. For example, if major networks aren't interested in casting you in their shows, start your own show on public access television in Manhattan and turn it into a cult hit. "Keep shouting until they're listening," as the theme song of said public access show screams over a house band comprised of four New York City punk legends and one kid they picked from the audience.

Chris Gethard doesn't apologize, but he does track an arc in his life from days of fearless manic depression that made him the life of the party to his realization that he couldn't continue to live that way and still be okay. As a comedian his strong suit has always been storytelling, and that shines through beautifully in every single one of the essays in this book. Gethard's self-deprecating sense of humor treats everyone as a whole person and demonizes no one, whether he's writing about an ex-girlfriend who he pushed away with his crippling depression and anxiety or a roommate who made his life a living hell for a year out of jealousy. Everyone is obviously a real, flawed person from the author's life, and he manages to celebrate those flaws in a way that makes the reader appreciate their own. But maybe that shouldn't be so surprising, because Chris Gethard is all about people proudly flaunting what makes them (according to the opening monologue of his show when it was picked up by a network earlier this year) "goons, goofs, freakazoids, oddballs, the sexually confused, dingbats, dinguses, the socially awkward, people with mild depression, dorks, asthmatics, underdogs, dweebs, people with severe depression, and Jabronies."

Be More Bookish - Week 8, Assignment 3

Memoirs can be found scattered throughout our collection based on the subject matter, but the majority are in our Biography section, which is where we keep poet, musician, and author Joy Harjo's Crazy Brave.

Collections of essays like New Jersey-born comedian Chris Gethard's A Bad Idea I'm About to Do live in the 814s, but essay collections just like this one can be found all over the 800s depending on their country of origin.  

Crime doesn't have its own classification in the Dewey decimal system, but it does fall under social sciences in the 300s. Most crime books, including true crime, would be in the 364s along with other criminology books, but The Setup: A True Story of Dirty Cops, Soccer Moms, and Reality TV by Pete Crooks actually goes in 363, presumably because it focuses on more than one social issue.

Faith is probably the second largest classification on this list after memoirs because the 200s are all religion, so searching for faith narrative nonfiction would definitely require some more information to recommend a good title. For example, Sister Freaks: Stories of Women Who Gave Up Everything for God goes under 270 because it deals with a variety of women's stories, varied in geographic locations and narrative.

Be More Bookish - Week 8, Assignment 1 & 2

I personally had never really read nonfiction outside of textbooks before I started working at the library. I'd sort of always figured that it would be boring and dry and not at all the kind of thing I was into. I've been playing catch up ever since. While fiction will always be my first love, I find myself drawn to nonfiction for completely different reasons, many of which were touched on in these two articles. Personally, my favorite type of narrative nonfiction is the memoir. I enjoy reading about a person's life from their reflective perspective, and I'm a sucker for self-deprecation.

In terms of these assignments, they struck me as a little dry. They made good points, but it was sort of like slogging through a nonfiction book that doesn't match your interests. Still, I appreciated the information, especially the advice on crossing over between fiction and nonfiction during reader's advisory. The video functions a lot like the Prezi map did for breaking down different subgenres for nonfiction, which is definitely an invaluable tool. There are even more type of nonfiction out there and as any librarian knows it can be a struggle keeping them all straight.

Be More Bookish - Week 7, Assignment 4

I decided to check out Teens@Random and Little, Brown Books for Teens specifically so that I could compare and contrast my idea of a great publishing company's teen website and a poor one. The Random House site feels like a PBS Kids games page from 2003, which is the last thing I want to see if I'm a teenager looking for a book. It seems patronizing and looks juvenile, and while it functions perfectly fine I can't help but believe that if I were a teen using it I would feel entirely pandered to. Aesthetic is important for these kind of websites, doubly so when you're trying to engage teens and young readers. I also found many broken links on Teens@Random. When I tried to open Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials featured page it simply directed me to the Random House home page. A few other featured sites I tried, including The Maze Runner series and the Fallen novels directed me to a page saying that the page had moved. It redirected me to a new homepage, but not to anything containing actual information about these series. Many, many problems.

Little, Brown Books, on the other hand, is killin' it. The website is simple, attractive, and strikes a great balance between teen and adult aesthetics. It does, however, lose out in terms of interface. When you go under the "Books" section for Random House, it immediately takes you to their new releases, with options to browse the rest of their bibliography be genre. Little, Brown Books has their titles sorted alphabetically with no option to browse by any other criteria, a feature which is effectively made superfluous by a search bar function. The content for Random House is also superior, they have a "Fun" page on their site which includes interviews with authors, video links, quizzes and polls, and a message board community. By contrast, L.B.B. has a simple but functional "Videos" page and a Tumblr-based community called NOVL. In terms of content, Random House definitely wins, but it's hard for me to get past just how ugly it is. For that reason alone, I'd rather look at Little, Brown Books all day.

Be More Bookish - Week 7, Assignment 3

I followed STACKED, a really interesting blog run by two librarians and an editor, and Squeetus, the personal website of author Shannon Hale of Ever After High and Austenland fame. STACKED is awesome, first of all, and one of my new favorite blogs to frequent. Not only is the writing clever, but the book reviews are very concise and informative. They also do themed series, like About The Girls, where they opened a dialogue about sexism within the YA industry. In the series they don't review books but they do discuss them within the context of the larger theme. Some other sections of their website include author interviews and a Readers Advisory Week where other librarians and bloggers wrote posts offering their own advice about RA. Really cool resource, needless to say I'm into it.

Squeetus has some similar themes, because it is the personal blog of author Shannon Hale and she writes a lot about how media is marketed for girls and what it's like being an author (and a woman) of books aimed at both genders but only getting recognized for writing books for girls.

But she also blogs about what its like being a mother, offers advice to schools and libraries about what makes a great author visit from the author's perspective, and provides updates and sneak peeks of her upcoming work to her fans. Also, and this is my favorite part, she has a SUPER comprehensive section of her website devote to offering advice to aspiring writers on topics beyond how to write compelling character or how to create a good story. She talks about how to get noticed and find a good agent, and has an article called "What I Wish I'd Known," which is just a list of things she wishes someone had told her when she was starting out. Honestly, I think this was my favorite assignment. These two websites are great and are immediately going in my bookmarks.

Be More Bookish - Week 7, Assignment 2

So I guess the main point of contention I have with these articles is that the one from 2012 (Who's buying teen books? Lots and lots of adults.) from the Christian Science Monitor feels pretty outdated. The question of whether lots of adult are reading YA novels may have been a burning one in 2012, but in 2015 it's not much of a conversation as the answer is an obvious and overwhelming "yes." To be honest, I don't think I ever stopped reading YA, and I wasn't even really aware that it was a classification until I started working at the library. The first YA series I started reading after entering BCPL was The Hunger Games, and like everyone I was hooked pretty much immediately. More than the author of the article herself, I relate strongly with Angelina Benedetti, who's quoted in the article reminiscing about when she first realized her mistake in ignoring YA and discovered that there is something extremely satisfying about reading it. Of course, the author goes on to say that one of the reasons why adults might enjoy Young Adult fiction is because it presents less of a challenge than a literary novel and may "offer a relaxing experience for an adult reader tired from commuting, working all day, and taking care of kids," which is endlessly condescending and makes it difficult for me to lend her writing credence.

It's interesting that the two articles I read could have been written in direct opposition to one another. Meg Wolitzer, the author of the New York Times article A Not-So-Young Audience for Young Adult Books, approaches the topic from the perspective of someone who enjoys and has consistently enjoyed YA novels her entire life. Wolitzer even goes so far as to quote from another article written by Ruth Graham, claiming that reading YA as an adult is something worth being ashamed about, so even though Molly Driscoll didn't write the article that Wolitzer is quoting, she and the real author obviously have a lot in common in their opinions of the topic. Wolitzer's evidence is compelling; she writes about the "kid lit" book club she's in, cites the impressive (and often literary) careers of the other members, and points out the growing number of so-called adult authors that have written books aimed at YA readers. Her goal is to demonstrate that Ruth Graham's hasty dismissal of YA books is an outdated point of view based on misinformation and unsubstantiated criticisms. Perhaps the most flawed argument that she draws attention to is Graham's notion that, because we can't read every book before we die, our time is wasted on YA. For my perspective, her arguments falls into the same trap that many critics and readers do, which is to operate under the assumption that there is some sort of master list of literature that is worth reading. If you ask me, a book's worth is entirely based on what the reader gets out of it. 

Be More Bookish - Week 7, Assignment 1

UH this is amazing. Can we just do a bunch of these?

Be More Bookish - Week 6, Assignment 3

The three sub-genres I wanted to examine closer are dystopian fiction, chick lit, and Christian urban fiction. I don't have any experience with these genres, the one possible exception being dystopian fiction since I have read The Hunger Games. Still, I really enjoyed finding some examples of these types of books to check out in the future.

Dystopian fiction:
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigulpa                          Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

1984 by George Orwell

Chick lit:

Jessica Z by Shawn Klomparens                         My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

One Day by David Nicholls

Christian urban fiction:
And You Call Yourself a Christian by E.N. Joy               The Choir Director by Carl Weber

Momma I Ain't No Saint by Angel

For the genre mashups section of this assignment, the first thing that came to mind was Joss Whedon's prematurely cancelled space western Firefly from 2002. The show explored the ideas of rebellion vs. incorporation by including former soldiers in the cast who had fought as Browncoats (rebels) in the war against the Alliance (union) to avoid their home worlds coming under the Alliance's control. Many of the planets that the crew frequented were on the Outer Rim, barely developed frontier moons with a small number of settlers trying to scratch out a living from the dirt. The crew of the ship Serenity were noble criminals who found ways to turn a profit while still standing up for themselves and the underdog, an idea which is certainly reminiscent of plenty of Western fiction.

Continuing with the Western theme, I've recently been reading and enjoying The Six-Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher, a genre mashup that takes the occult horror of the H.P. Lovecraft mythos and sets it in a small town in the Old West. This has been really working for me, as the horror and supernatural elements create new and interesting challenges for these somewhat prototypical Western character to face, but it still pays homage to the John Wayne or Clint Eastwood figure that the reader knows is going to manage to come out on top. All of the superstition and folklore that we expect from Western books is here, but intertwined with the dark, twisted flavor of H.P. Lovecraft.

Be More Bookish - Week 6, Assignment 2

The Prezi chart is really well done, and I can definitely see it being a valuable tool for teaching genres and sub-genres. The only thing I was surprised to see was that the Native American sub-genre was categorized under Westerns, and the example given was War Dances by Sherman Alexie, a collection of short stories, essays, and poems examining what it means to be a Native American today. I can't say I agree with the classification, as to me it hearkens back to "classic" and uncomfortable depictions of Native Americans in old Western films and books. Sherman Alexie in particular, I would argue, writes literary fiction occasionally bordering into offbeat humor with some elements of magical realism or surrealism. Of course, that's a minor grievance with the exercise and the Prezi display can hardly be faulted for how we classify certain authors and sub-genres.

Be More Bookish - Week 6, Assignment 1

I think Romance is probably the only section in our library that I've never taken a book off of. I try not to be prejudiced, but I think it's pretty clear that I do suffer from some preconceptions and bias in the romance department. I will say, though, that even with my preconceptions and bias and limited knowledge I still managed to be surprised by the sheer amount of

that they talk about on Heroes and Heartbreakers. That's not to say that that's all that's offered on the website; I was also pleasantly surprised to read a lot of articles and interviews dealing with some very poignant current events and addressing sex positivity and body shaming. The sex positivity articles were both the least and most surprising things I noticed while following the blog: least because, well, everything I read was about sex, but also most because I wasn't expecting the tone of acceptance. For a genre that seems to feature mostly straight heterosexual coupling between strong (time-tossed) men and frazzled (yet sensual) women, the community is surprisingly open minded.  It was nice to see, and I will freely admit that I was also surprised and impressed with the level of discourse I saw in the articles. I definitely fell victim to my prejudices going into this assignment back in week 1, but I'm happy to report that I often found myself genuinely absorbed in the articles and summaries I was reading on Heroes and Heartbreakers. I'm looking forward to giving some of these books a chance.

Be More Bookish - Week 5, Assignment 3

The cover design for Infinite Home, the new novel by Kathleen Alcott that came out in hardback on August 4, was the first thing that drew my attention. I actually pick a lot of my reads based off of cover art alone and the mix of color and patterns was what got me to click on this bad boy. In spirit it reminds me of A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. Infinite Home follows a cast of misfits and outcasts who share an apartment building and find themselves facing eviction by their deceased landlady's estranged son after he inherits the building. Not only are these characters underdogs, I think a lot of the appeal comes from following a colorful cast of characters with a very relatable goal. The fact that it takes place in Brooklyn, NYC is a quick draw for a lot of readers, as the hip, artsy nature of Brooklyn has become almost legendary in our current culture. As the Amazon blurb says: the characters go on a journey together trying to find their new home and senses of purpose, and that hopefully promises a pace that won't stagnate. Overall, I think the appeal of this title stems largely from the implied (possibly dark) humor, the varied and interesting characters, the almost universal struggle of being unable to afford to live where you live, and how dynamic the plot seems.

Be More Bookish - Week 5, Assignment 1 & 2

When I first started following Early Word back in week 1, I was really excited by the publisher-librarian connection. I touched on it briefly in one of my first entries, but as someone with aspirations of publishing this kind of interconnectivity is my favorite. Basically, Early Word is the best and I've caught myself losing track of time while browsing on more than one (or ten) occasion(s). In addition to the publisher-librarian aspect, I've found it a really invaluable tool for what to look out for in terms of upcoming high-request material. I also can't stress enough how nice it is to frequent a blog that doesn't just give reviews of books but also talks about other forms of media, such as movie adaptations or television appearances by authors. For example, yesterday I got pretty psyched when I saw the write up about Alison Bechdel's appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, which included a performance by the cast of the upcoming Broadway adaptation of her graphic novel Fun Home. It's that kind of broadening focus that I'm looking forward to seeing in library models (not just ours, but all over the world) as we continue adapting and moving forward.

There seems to be a pretty good mix of what is popular at our branch. There are always people coming in and requesting new material, but for the most part it's for the four or five most popular new titles according to the New York Times or other well-known sources. A lot of that is informed by upcoming theatrical releases. I just helped a patron trying to find Steve Jobs' biography by Walter Isaacson a few minutes ago; she wanted to read it before the movie came out. There's also a high demand for interesting nonfiction, suggesting that our patrons like to challenge themselves. One of our highest circulating displays is a rotation of new nonfiction books selected by staff, and we try to keep it stocked with diverse topics. If they don't have something specific in mind, many of our patrons make a beeline right to the Staff Recommendations display. Oftentimes they're willing to check a book out based on who recommended it.

Be More Bookish - Week 4, Assignment 1

I've been using Goodreads more or less actively for about five years, so I'm extremely familiar with all of its features and uses. I utilize it pretty regularly to give suggestions or summaries of books for patrons, and to keep an eye on what my friends and colleagues are reading. A lot of the time I find the peer reviews to be both more helpful and more balanced than a critical review from a blog or publication. This was the first time I've ever given a recommendation for a book through the website, however, and I have to say that I'm a fan of the feature. Honestly I think the only reason I've never used it before is because all of my Goodreads friends always have so many books that they're currently reading. For this assignment I gave two of my coworkers recommendations for a couple of my favorite books. I know that one of them is really into DIY and the punk scene, so I recommended The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight for her. I also know that she isn't a huge fan of fiction that involves a lot of internal monologue and character development, but The Taqwacores is written with very plain language and even though it's told from the first-person perspective, the main character's arc is very contained and accessible. My other coworker recommendation was for Transmetropolitan, a graphic novel by Warren Ellis. I saw on Goodreads that my coworker has enjoyed graphic novels like Watchmen in the past, and based on conversations that I've had with him at work I know he's also interested in politics and journalism, both of which are huge focuses for the series. He also has a few science fiction titles with high ratings on his list, and Transmetropolitan has some of the most groundbreaking transhumanist and dystopian-future sci-fi elements I've ever read.

Be More Bookish - Week 3, Assignment 3

Conversation 1: So I already used this book for one of my Week 2 annotations, but I think How to Grow Up by Michelle Tea would be a really good match for this reader. It's a memoir about a woman with a strong narrative voice who is unafraid to bare her soul to the reader, even if what they see isn't polished or pretty. It's a recent release but isn't what I would call mainstream, and I think that might make it accessible to the reader but also challenge them out of their comfort zone slightly. Michelle Tea talks about her life with a very self-deprecating sense of humor, and with its candid discussions of sexuality, drug abuse, and learning the importance of self-love this book would certainly provide plenty of topics for discussion in a book club.


Conversation 2: I would recommend Sunshine by Robin McKinley for this reader for a few different reasons. At a very cursory glance, Sunshine could be seen as sort of a proto-Twilight and is, in my opinion, probably one of the biggest inspirations for Stephanie Meyer's series. However, the main difference between the two is that Sunshine explores the idea of vampires as true monsters, and balances the supernatural elements out with pieces of main character Rae Seddon's regular life as a baker, recovering juvenile delinquent, and girlfriend to a strictly non-vampire biker-turned-chef. The books biggest strengths lie in the patchwork family unit that McKinley has crafted for her protagonist and the very real passion for baking that allows her to give such rich description about monotonous, everyday activities. These bits of humanity and comfort lend real power to the sympathy the reader feels for Rae as she struggles against the darkness that she wandered into by accident. I think this book could show the reader that just because a book focuses on a female character and her involvement with vampires, it doesn't mean that it has to turn out like Twilight.


Conversation 3: The President and the Assassin by Scott Miller sounds like it would be right up this reader's alley. It matches all of the elements that they described enjoying about The River of Doubt, with the added benefit of a dual perspective narrative following both President William McKinley and Leon Czolgosz, the anarchist who ultimately killed him, through the years leading up to the assassination. The author, Scott Miller, deftly weaves the two tales together so that the broad focus at the beginning of the book gradually narrows until the reader is looking through a pinhole at the moment when McKinley died. This book incorporates all of the things the reader said they enjoyed about The River of Doubt while also giving a new twist on a more nuanced subject.

Be More Bookish - Week 2, Assignment 2

Nevada is the first novel by author Imogen Binnie. The story takes a languid, thoughtful pace that reflects the more or less aimless journey that transgender main character Maria Griffiths sets out on. Binnie writes in a very stream-of-consciousness style, reflecting the scattered mental processes and almost crippling self-awareness displayed by her characters. Though arguably very little of note happens in the story, Binnie's characters are intricate enough to stand on their own, and her unflinching honesty as an author makes the reader want to wince in sympathy. Her true strength as a writer, however, is doubtlessly her ability to describe settings and incorporate them into the story. Whether it's the self-aggrandizing pretension of New York City or the almost surreal piece of decaying Americana that is Star City, Nevada, the reader will always get an almost visceral sense of where the characters are.

The Sculptor is the latest graphic novel by industry-name Scott McCloud, who also wrote the highly influential Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics. McCloud's art has changed slightly for this book, becoming more realistic in some places and more cartoonish in others, but generally speaking the same under-detailed simplicity of his character designs remains. The Sculptor finds artist David Smith with only 200 days to live and the ability to create great sculptures with his bare hands, and as far as stories with time limits go this one keeps a good pace throughout, only getting bogged down once or twice near the middle. The two main characters learn and grow from one another, as David helps love interest Meg handle her depression and Meg shows David that he does have something to live for. The Sculptor makes a powerful transition in tone as David's time starts to run out, tracking an arc from whimsical love story to desperate final hour that keeps the reader wanting to frantically turn pages until the very end.

How to Grow Up is the latest memoir written by San Fransisco-based author Michelle Tea about her life coming from a poor working-class family in Massachusetts, living as a destitute writer in San Fransisco, and eventually finding success and stability. Tea writes with a very honest voice, making the reader feel completely welcome in the chambers of her memory. She covers a wide variety of topics, transitioning smoothly chapter by chapter from love to substance abuse to the guilt of spending money after being poor her entire life. Even while jumping around different time periods in her life, Tea manages to craft a cohesive narrative that shows the reader just how drastically life can change when a person decides that they deserve to be happy and starts taking care of themselves. Richly written with strong imagery, Michelle Tea is definitely a writer's writer who can vividly transplant the reader and truly imparts her passion for the craft. 

Be More Bookish - Week 2, Assignment 1

I was speaking to Stephen, a coworker at Catonsville, about this reading assignment and I remarked that, to me, the sections detailing the elements of appeal seemed to be maybe possibly just a little bit over-complicating a largely intuitive process. He told me that he'd been thinking about it in terms of music composition, which is to say in terms of all of the different elements coming together to make a cohesive whole. I really appreciated this perspective, as it helped me think about this reading in a different context. There have been artists that I have loved but that have one or two songs that I absolutely can't stand. In the same way, not every book written in the historical fiction genre is going to appeal equally to every person who loves historical fiction. It's important to understand the different elements of appeal, because not every book in the same vein is going to focus on the same things. Not every author has the same strengths, or displays them equally in every single book that he or she writes.

This new perspective made it a lot easier for me to appreciate and absorb the different types of reader's advisory described by the next part of the article. Over all, I would have to say that the first type is the method with which I've had the most success. In my experience, readers are much more interested in talking about their tastes than answering specific questions, and I've found that more often than not listening to someone describe what they enjoy and why allows me to come up with at least a few suggestions. For example, parents will often approach the desk and ask for suggestions for their kids, saying things like "oh, he's really into books with dragons" or "last year she was really into fairies but now I think we've outgrown them." What the second statement tells me is that the girl has an interest in fantasy settings, but that fairies have either started to bore her or she's outgrown them. In that scenario, I would probably recommend something that has an older target audience but still incorporates, if not fairies, something that has a similar feel and flavor. Perhaps some of Edward Eager or E. Nesbit's books, though they might be a little too old and outdated at this point, and definitely Cornelia Funke's Inkheart Trilogy. The doorway method also appeals to me as it doesn't rely solely on our very limiting and sometimes inaccurate genre classifications. All in all, this article proved to be a lot more fruitful than I thought it was at first glance. I'm excited to try out some of these new techniques!

Be More Bookish - Week 1, Assignment 5

I don't want to say that ALL of these books would be improved if they were written like this kid thought, but it's more than one in my opinion. Either way, I want to read all of them.

Be More Bookish - Week 1, Assignment 3

Today I read Cindy Orr's Golden Rules of Reader's Advisory, and while I found most of them to be really well-thought out and helpful, there was one "rule" that I had a problem with. Rule #7, which instructs that you should avoid talking about your own tastes when helping someone find a book that might appeal to them, is pretty contrary to my own experiences in reader's advisory. Personally, I've found that I do a much better job describing a book and why the reader might enjoy it if I myself feel passionately about it. Obviously I won't always be able to draw on personal experience when performing reader's advisory, but I think that adding my own experience with a book gives the interaction a little extra familiarity. I think that it shows the patrons that I love books too, and that I'm not just giving them a list of suggestions that they could have pulled off the computer but a personal recommendation about something that I obviously cared about. In my opinion, it brings a little more humanity to the conversation, and creates a more casual atmosphere that helps put the reader at ease. Not every patron is looking to have a conversation, of course, but that's more about reading the situation and being flexible than about following any rules, I think.

Be More Bookish - Week 1, Assignment 2

This was pretty straightforward. I got 2 and 3 wrong, but honestly I'm not sure that there is a correct way to indicate "literary" fiction. Wouldn't that roughly just mean good fiction? I don't have a good excuse for 2, that was just stupidity on my part. This definitely made me stop and think about how stereotyping some book covers are. The fact that "chick lit" is characterized by the color pink and flowers and butterflies is a little unsettling when you see it without a title or anything other than the artwork. All in all this was a really cool exercise and I wouldn't mind doing it with other people just for fun.

Be More Bookish - Week 1, Assignment 1

So I'll confess that this isn't my first time taking these two tests, but here are my results:

Adult Lit: 20/24, 83%

Children's Lit: 16/20, 80%

There were a few iconic covers that I knew without having read the books, but for the most part I was surprised that I'd read most of these.

Be More Bookish - Week 1, Assignment 4

So, for the fourth assignment of week one, I decided to start following EarlyWord for the Recommended Links - Books section and Heroes and Heartbreakers from Recommended Links - Genre. EarlyWord was a simple choice; I didn't want to use Goodreads since that's a site I already frequent. The Publisher-Librarian connection is an idea that appeals to me, since my educational background is partially in creative writing and publishing. Furthermore, the fact that Nora Rawlinson doesn't simply post about books but also helpful tools and tips for programming, collection management, and the everyday running of a public library made it kind of an obvious choice.

Heroes and Heartbreakers was also a choice that I made in an effort to break out of my comfort zone. I've honestly never paid much attention to the romance genre (outside of quietly laughing at the ridiculous titles and cover art), but I really wanted to make an effort to fill in the weak points in my RA knowledge base and I know that the romance collection is one of the heaviest hitters when it comes to circulation. I'm pretty excited about getting to challenge myself with this choice, since I'm not usually a reader who branches out all that often. And maybe I can finally learn what the deal is with time-travelling highlanders and abusive 18-century minor nobility.