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.