BMB Week 4: Goodreads

Goodreads is amazing! I've been a member since grad school, and use it to keep track of what I read. I also use another website, Librarything, to keep track of the books I own (over 700 right now, but shrinking!). Just a couple days ago, I got a free copy of The Pitcher by William Hazelgrove from Goodreads to read and post a review of. Hopefully I'll get to that soon.

I have one criticism of Goodreads. I have a hard time finding my real-life friends through the site, and I hesitate to link it with Facebook or other sites. It may be that my friends just aren't on/don't know about the site (they're not big readers), but I'd like to see improvements to the suggested friends tool.

I wrote about the suggestions I made for this assignment back in this post.

BMB Week 9: Book Trailers

Assignment 1

I watched a few book trailers on YouTube and noticed that the production values are widely varied, from semi-professional short productions to videos that look like the dumb ones I made in high school with my friends. I suppose that because multimedia is pervasive today, book trailers are a good way to reach people who browse YouTube and blogs at work or home. I find it kind of funny that books are being advertised by movies, and that the book-to-movie conversion rate is very high. I guess it speaks to our lack of time nowadays, where people may be able to spend 2 or 3 hours on a movie, but not the days to a week to devote to a book.

I do like that some of the trailers don't take themselves seriously. The Packing for Mars one, and one I found for Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters were very well done and quite funny to boot. I'm sure they were heavily backed by their publishers and their creative teams. Others that I watched were more independent-film-styled and were sometime too serious to make me interested in reading the book.

Assignment 2

I think that book trailers are successful in promoting their book if they have the certain "magic ingredients" to go "viral" on the Internet. I'm still trying to figure out what makes a video go viral, but I think the trailers I mentioned above have or had a good chance. The other trailers that look like home movies I think are less successful, and that's supported by the lower umber of views on YouTube. As far as using them in RA, if the customer has the time or interest to watch them, I think book trailers would be useful in setting up the plot and tone of a book, and introducing some of the characters. I know that at a busy Info desk, I wouldn't have the time to watch whole trailers with customers, though perhaps setting them up on a computer and referring them to YouTube would be useful to them.

I once had a customer approach me at the Info Desk and tell me about the book he had published and asked about adding it to the collection. I told him the procedure and that I'm not the person who makes those decisions, and he insisted I watch the trailer for his book. The book was nonfiction and the trailer was quite interesting.

Assignment 3

I enjoyed this training a lot! The lessons about appeal factors were new to me and very informative. I think the weekly topics were well chosen and built upon previous ones. None of the assignments were too difficult, though some were very time-consuming, which is why I'm finishing so late. I would have strongly preferred that the BMB blog was accessible from home; I know many of my colleagues feel the same way. I think BCPL could have saved a lot of printer paper if we didn't have to print out each assignment to take home. My supervisors were also very gracious to schedule time for BMB blogging. Thanks!

BMB Week 8: Nonfiction

I love nonfiction! Whether narrative or how-to, nonfiction is my favorite genre to read. And to recommend. There's lots of info goodness in our nonfic stacks!

Assignment 1

These two articles made me think more critically about the way I recommend books to customers, and about the way I read them myself. In my readers advisory work, I'm going to attempt to cross over the fict/nonfic delineation more often, because it's nice to offer our customers that option. It might even be easier to recommend nonfiction to a customer who reads a lot of fiction because nonfiction is subdivided so finely. Some customers, of course, won't be receptive to this, but I still think it's important to try to make those connections across our entire collection.

Assignment 2

This video was really informative, though a little bit dry. While I new there were a lot of genres of narrative nonfiction, it was impressive to see 16 of them listed out, and my mind immediately started trying to think of books that I know about in each of the genres. The mention of "lack of appeal" factors was smart, although I've found it extremely difficult to screen for these factors in Novelist and the like. I'd probably run my recommendation through commonsensemedia.org if I had time during the RA interview.

Assignment 3

Narrative crime nonfiction is mostly found in the 364s. In this section, I would recommend Bringing Adam Home by Les Standiford, about the abduction of John Walsh's (of America's Most Wanted fame) son.

Disaster/survival is all around the nonfiction collections depending on the type of disaster. Krakauer's Into Thin Air is in the 760s with mountaineering, while Piers Paul Reed's Alive is in the 982s with history and the Andes region. I've found, for this genre, that searching by subject is a lot more effective than looking around in the Dewey area.

Medical narrative nonfiction is found with health books in the 616s. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is a popular book in this genre.

Adventure or military nonfiction, depending on the time period, is found in the 900s. Popular titles like Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden and No Easy Day by Mark Owen are found around the 960s.

Assignment 4

More on this later.

BMB Week 7

Assignment 1

That's a nice graphic. It's an infographic, not a flowchart, because flowcharts involve a process or steps of action. It is pretty but it needs to be updated fairly regularly as new books are published and the "latest new releases" books get older. Otherwise, it's very informative and gives a decent sketch of what the books are about just by connecting them to a larger idea. And it's very cool to see that there are so many facets to the genre that can keep a reader busy for months if not years.

Assignment 2

The article from Publisher's Weekly explores the term "new adults" and how it originated as a marketing term but is developing into its own subgenre. I've heard quite a bit about "fiction for new adults" and have even read some. I think that whatever we call it (YA fiction, "fiction for new adults," etc) it fills a gap in the market, and it emergence reflects the times. Nowadays, more twenty-somethings are returning home after college unemployed and with lots of debt. These books offer escapism and focus on the second "coming of age" of the post-college adult (the first is during those tumultuous teenage years in high school, of which there has been no shortage of coverage in fiction). I think the "fiction for new adults" genre is also expanding because the books themselves are comparatively quick and easy to produce (a boon for writers and publishers), and quick and easy to write (essential for time-pressed adults and teens over-committed to extra-curriculars).

The CSMonitor article has a great line about "mother and daughter reading the same book" that I think is a very important--and rare--component of book marketing. Libraries, of course, are not as concerned about "selling" as bookstores and publishers, but  as books with cross-generational appeal appear on our shelves , we can encourage families to share their books, open up communication, and better relate to each other. That's a big part of knowledge creation in our communities, which is a primary point in our mission as librarians.

Assignment 3

Let's choose Forever Young Adult (which I keep reading as "For Every Young Adult"--I think this is intentional) and Teenreads.

FYA has a variety of contributors, from librarians to YA authors to self-espoused "fangirls." According to their About page, they tend to write towards young adult women. Judging by the amount and quality of the comments that each post garners, I would say that FYA is reaching its audience and engaging them with topics and reviews that are relevant. Some of the posts are even relevant to me (a late 20s male)! So I've really enjoyed reading FYA.

Teenreads really shows how YA authors can be proactive about engaging with readers through blog posts. Discerning the success of this site is more difficult because there aren't as many comments. However, their monthly poll results show about 200-500 readers are voting per month, which is not a ton of readership, but pretty good considering there are probably 50% more readers who passively "drive by." I'm hoping that both Teenreads and FYA have mobile versions of their sites, because that's really where teens are accessing the Internet, and it's important for each site to be visually appealing and easy to use, or else risk declining readership. I don't have a mobile device to check on this, but I'm confident the webmasters of the blogs have taken this into consideration.

Assignment 4

I really like the Teens@Random page. First, the design of the site is clean but still quirky and inviting, which I think will appeal to teens. There's also quite a bit of interactivity, like polls and Facebook games (most likely cleverly-disguised market research and revenue). The site also features author interviews and book trailers. I like the idea of book trailers, but they should be done carefully and sparingly because I've seen some truly awful ones. One trend that I noticed about new fiction from Random is that the covers feature an illustration (or heavily-airbrushed photo) of a main character, and that the readers can identify with this character because he or she looks like them (or looks how they want to look). Book covers are turning into artsy magazine covers. Not that this is a bad thing, since it helps us as librarians identify the targeted audience of the book.

BMB Week 6

Assignment 1

The thing I like most about Tor - Fiction Affliction, as I mentioned in my previous post, is that they highlight the quirky releases in the sci-fi/fantasy genre in their "genre-benders" lists. These books open up whole new avenues or reading for our customers. Suzanne also does a great job of compiling all the new releases and arranging them by date, just in case our readers are eager to get the first copy. I do wish there was a little more review and less preview (i.e. marketing blurbs) on the site.

Assignment 2

This Prezi is really well done. I've seen a lot of Prezi presentations (Prezi-tations?), since it was just becoming popular when I was in graduate school. Most of those made me feel motion sick, while this one did not. I especially like how the nodes and links are written up in concise and informative paragraphs. I could almost hear a customer saying something similar.

Assignment 3

Let's choose Christian Urban Fiction, Superhuman Sci-fi, and Military Romance, since I am not familiar with those subgenres.

Christian Urban Fiction

Fan Website: The Gospel Writer is dying to be updated, but has some good review, previews, and interviews that tell a lot about the genre. According to the site, urban christian fiction focuses on the protagonist's relationship with God in their everyday lives, showing deeply personal spiritual awakenings and journeys.
Three authors/titles: Rhonda McKnight writes a blog about the books in the subgenre, including her own. Some authors in this subgenre are also clergy or theologians, like Karia Bunting. Vanessa Miller is a motivational speaker and author of at least 30 urban christian books.

Superhuman Sci-fi

Fan Website: I found a couple of good websites via Google. Miami-Dade College actually has a libguide for the sungenre, which is really cool. An article from Examiner.com talks about a few titles and authors, and touches upon the "con" scene, which I think is a very important to understanding the subgenre. Conventions are growing exponentially in popularity, and they are places where fans interact, share, and find new and interesting things to read.
Three authors/titles: Some of Stephen King's novels involve superhuman components, such as Carrie and The Dead Zone. Dune by Frank Herbert and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (now a major motion picture!) are also classic novels that fit into this subgenre.

Military Romance - "Passion and Patriotism"

Fan Website: I did a Google search and found a fan site that hasn't been updated since 2005 here. It is totally awesome in a retro way--the whole page is centered, with lots of graphic banners and gifs--and it talks briefly about a new (at the time) author Catherine Mann's "Wingman Warriors" series. Incidentally, the whole series has just been released as ebooks. Will we see an update of this site?? I'm waiting breathlessly.
Three Authors/Titles: It looks like Suzanne Brockmann is the matriarch of this genre. Catherine Mann has become quite popular as well. Maya Banks's KGI series ranks high on the Goodreads list for military romance.

Assignment 4

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a classic/horror mashup. To my chagrin, a few of Austen's books have been "mashed" since they're out of copyright. It's not at the top of my to-read list, but I am aware of it, and it seems to be (or has been) popular with teens. Kirkus has some more to say on this topic.

The Destroyermen series, starting with Into the Storm, is a techno-thriller/fantasy mashup. Half Tom Clancy, half George R. R. Martin. At the cusp of WWII, a WWI-era destroyer sets sail for Japan but is caught in a storm that transports it to an alternate world inhabited by two species of creatures who are at war. The premise was almost certainly inspired by the awesome 1980 film The Final Countdown.

Cinder is a fairy-tale/sci-fi mashup about a cyborg in "New Beijing" who meets a prince and saves Earth from aggressive lunar people. I've heard really good things about this one, and have had requests for it. The thing I like most about it is that you can tell that it's a genre mashup just from the cover and title.

A couple new tools I discovered, and one I want to make

I was looking for some new resources for reader's advisory, because I'm trying to become better at it, and ran across two online tools that look interesting, and could potentially be useful in an RA conversation.

WhichBook

WhichBook is a recommender website where you can get suggestions based on mood. So, if your customer is in the mood for a certain kind of book, you can use sliders to select  up to four characteristics on a gradient, like the generic "Happy > Sad" or "Beautiful > Disgusting" or "Gentle > Violent". However, it looks like the recommended books are primarily UK-focused, so I hope that their library of suggestions will grow.

YourNextRead

This is a pretty interesting site for recommendations. You choose a book, and the site generates a spiderweb of eight similar titles. Their transparency is lacking though,because there are no appeal factors listed, so you can't tell how exactly the titles were matched or where the recommendations come from (I'm guessing they scrape Amazon for titles and reviews, since there is some prominent advertising for Amazon).

• There is also a really great feature called MyMap, where you can create a "map" of your reading, linking books so they are laid out graphically.

And one that I would enjoy using (and may have to create myself)

I would love to see a website or tool that would compare two books based on their appeal factors, and then make recommendations based on the similarities as well as the differences between the two. For example, if someone had read Fifty Shades of Grey and Twilight and wanted readalikes, I could tell them a couple for 50 Shades and a couple for Twilight, but is there Paranormal BDSM Romance out there that I don't know about? (edit: Goodreads says there are...yikes! )I think this kind of comparison tool or website would be quite popular.

BMB Week 5

Assignment 1

I really enjoy following NPR Books because of the multi-media nature of it. All in one place, read a news story about a book, see relevant photos, and listen to the book review. It aggregates content from all of the syndicated NPR shows, so it's easy to see a list of all books review on, say, Morning Edition.

Tor.com's Fiction Afflictionis great because it's very easy to digest. They have four categories that talk about every month: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, and "Genre-Benders." I love the last category because the books within it are so creative. It's nice to see that there's still a whole lot of innovation in these genres, so that readers can constantly expand their reading.

Assignment 2

Popular fiction is definitely the genre for which I get the most requests. Often, customers will come in with a list of books they read about in the newspaper or saw on Anderson Cooper or Dr. Phil.

The questions I really like to get are from customers who saw a book on TV or in the newspaper, and can't remember the title or the author. This is a pretty straightforward search, if they can remember around when they saw the book. We just look at the website for the TV show or newpaper, and there is usually a rundown of guests or topics that is easy to scroll through. It's a pretty easy search that most of our customers find really helpful, and they are impressed and appreciative when we find the title their looking for.

Earlyword is going to be really useful for these kinds of questions, because it has, for example, an index to People magazine book reviews. That will definitely come in handy. Also, Earlyword is also very meticulous about tagging its content, so I will be happily perusing the multitude of categories.

Assigment 3

One of USA Today's anticipated books is Tenth of December by George Saunders. It is a book of short stories that take place in a variety of settings, but mostly in the near-future world, with a focus on the intersection of science and technology and humanity. The stories have strong moral themes and are written in with a quirky wit that would appeal to fans of David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell. Readers looking for similar short stories about science and technology would enjoy Kurt Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House. Readers who prefer a more traditional short story language and format would like John Cheever's collected short stories, as well.

Be More Bookish: Some Recommendations I've Made

Following up on Week 2, I posted two recommendations on Olivia's blog. She wrote about her passion for character-driven novels with a touch of sci-fi and humor. First I suggested Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan, based on Novelist's suggestions for read-alikes. I also went out on a limb and suggested David Wong's John Dies in the End, which has a good amount of characterization, as well as humor and a sci-fi flavor. In it's chewy caramel center, though, Wong's book is outrageous and zany horror, so I may have missed the mark on that one.

That brings up an interesting point, though. Reader's advisory is necessarily a balancing act. The customer has told us what they like. We need to parlay that into a suggestion. In some cases and some genres, we can suggest a book that hits their every taste exactly (cozy mysteries, I'm looking at you). In the much more common cases, we can find books based on appeal factors, but rarely does a book match everything they want.


Following up from Week 4, I sent a suggestion to my coworker Jaime on Goodreads. Based on her ratings for celebrity autobiographies, such as Bossypants, I suggested Nerd Do Well by Simon Pegg. Let me tell you, though, it was tough to find a book that wasn't already on her Goodreads! That's only natural since she's a darn good librarian.

Be More Bookish: Week 3, Conversation 3

Conversation 3

I, too, love non-fiction that reads like fiction, so I can suggest quite a few good books like River of Doubt. It sounds like you enjoy reading about dramatic historical adventures, so we can start with:

Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone by Martin Dugard, which is a fast-paced telling of the exploration of sub-Saharan Africa with two of the most famous explorers, and the challenges they faced. It's hard to believe just how perilous the adventure was.










I can also suggest A Night to Remember by Walter Lord, which is about the sinking of the Titanic. Lord was a great researcher, and he has written a deliciously detailed account of the voyage that is a good companion to the movie from the 1990s, if you liked that.










Another book, in the too-weird-to-be-true category, is Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. It's about the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, and it contrasts the stories of the Fair's coordinator with a madman who abducted tourists to torture and kill them. It's interesting but kind of gruesome, and completely true.











I hope you enjoy some of these suggestions!

Be More Bookish: Week 3, Conversation 2

Conversation 2

I haven't personally read any vampire stories recently, but they are a pretty popular subject right now, so I'm sure we can find something that you'll like better than Twilight. It sounds to me that you are looking for a vampire story with more action and suspense, and less of a teenage love story. I can look on Novelist to see what some titles would be.



Here we go...Here's one called 13 Bullets: A Vampire Tale by David Wellington. It's a modern-day vampire tale featuring a police officer vampire hunter. A group of vampires is committing several murders in rural Pennsylvania, and the main character must track them and stop them. Just a warning, though, it's quite violent.











Here's another, called The Blood Gospel by James Rollins, who is quite popular for his fast-paced dramatic thrillers. This one features a team of scholars who are investigating a sect of possible vampires who have existed since the time of Jesus and have infiltrated the Vatican.











If you're in the mood for something just as fast, but lighter, I can suggest Stray Souls by Kate Griffin, which is about a support group for magical beings--including vampires--who band together to fight an evil that is determined to destroy London.













Do any of those sound interesting to you?

Be More Bookish: Week 3, Conversation 1

Conversation 1

It sounds like you enjoy memoirs and travel writing with a strong female lead character and detailed descriptions of places. And also books that would be good to reflect upon and discuss with a group.

I can suggest a couple that might be to your liking, and you can choose the one that you like best:

Wild by Cheryl Strayed: About a woman who solo hikes the Pacific Crest Trail and her successes and setbacks in that endeavor. The book features reflections on her life before the hike and her motivations for the trip.









The Awakening by Kate Chopin: A story about a woman in upper-class Victorian New Orleans who vacations on an island resort and falls in love with a young bachelor there. In the story, she tries to reconcile her marriage and children with her desire for personal freedom and fulfillment.











Others: Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mays, Committed by Elizabeth Gibert - the "sequel" to Eat, Pray, Love.

Be More Bookish: Week 2

Here are a couple books I've enjoyed recently:

Mr. Penumbra's 24- Hour Bookstore: A Novel by Robin Sloan (FSG, 2012)

:

I've often jokingly described this book as a "more credible Da Vinci Code" because of its fast pace and the focus on the main character's quest to uncover the purpose of the titular bookstore. His techie friends inject 21st-Century flavor as they unravel the mysteries of the store's collection and customers. Sloan writes in a very quick and light prose, and the characters, quirky to the extreme, are sympathetic with the occasional eye-roll. Every generation of reader can relate to themes here: finding purpose in one's life, protecting one's legacy, and the transition from an analog world to a digital one.

On the Grid: A Plot of Land, an Average Neighborhood, and the Systems that Make Our World Work by Scott Huler (Rodale, 2011)

Water comes out of the tap, a light turns on when you flick the switch. We don't give it a second thought, except when it breaks. Huler's book, a basic and friendly introduction to the infrastructure of our world, shows how our lives and utilities are interconnected, how they work, and why sometimes they don't. Using his native Raleigh as a model of a typical city, Huler's humorous descriptions and quirky asides about infrastructure (e.g. garbage trucks are affectionately called "one-armed bandits" by their operators) give a behind-the-curtain peek at the technology we depend on but don't even know about. This is not a technical manual, though there is a thorough bibliography for further reading. This book is a must read for anyone who is curious about how things work.

Some recent readers' advisory interactions

Since we're learning about readers' advisory, I'm going to share some recent interactions I've had with customers and how I handled them.

• A customer came up to the desk and asked for the NYT best seller list. I asked if she was looking for something in particular, and she told me that she was looking for a "beach read." She said that she loved The Lovely Bones and [another book I can't remember]. 
• I gathered that she liked fast-paced, thoughtful books with female leads. I suggested Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

• A customer stopped me while I was shelving and asked for a suggestion of a good book to read. She said she loved The Hunger Games and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and remarked that she only read series because she read so fast. 
• Going with the fast-paced, dystopian themes, I suggested the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth. We didn't have the first book of the series, so I put it on hold. I wanted to make sure that she left the library with something to read, so I recommended The Giver by Lois Lowry, because it is a four-part series and is also dystopian and character-driven. 

•  A customer was browsing the playaways while I was roving. I stopped to ask how she liked the playaways, and she asked if we had any funny books on playaway because she only listens to books on that device. She specifically mentioned that she liked the Mr. Monk series by Lee Goldberg.  

• This was a really tough one. We don't have a whole lot on playaway, and none of the Mr. Monk series. In the end, the only thing I could find was Wild Ride by Jennifer Crusie, which wasn't really appropriate.

I'd love any suggestions or feedback on these recommendations! How could I have done better?

Be More Bookish: Week 1

Assignment 1:

• For the adult books, I got 16/24 in about 3 minutes. I missed:  The Prophet, A Million Little Pieces, She's Come Undone, Lord of the Flies, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Eragon, Freakanomics (D'oh!), and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I take issue with the last one, since I tried "Chronicles of Narnia" and was rejected.
• For the children's books, I knew 10/20 in about 3 minutes, and only that because I'm doing the reader's advisory training checklist right now. I needed help on Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar, because I knew it as the "hungry little caterpillar". I also knew Are you my mother?, but tried it as "are you my mommy". Sporcle didn't like that. I missed James and the Giant Peach (on my to-read list for RA training), Stuart Little, Cricket in Times Square, Corduroy (I was thinking Paddington Bear, for some reason), Bridge to Terabithia, The Snowy Day, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and The Napping House. Guess How Much I Love You is a great book, although all I could remember was that the characters were the big nut brown hare and the little nut brown hare.

Assignment 2

• I could determine most of them at a glance, but I need a refresher on High Fantasy and Urban Fantasy.

Assignment 4

• I'm going to follow NPR Books because I rarely hear a formal book review on the air, but I love listening to their author interviews. I'm interested in seeing how the web reviews match up with their on-air programming.
• Picking a Genre link is kind of hard. I'm interested in all of them! I'm going to pick Fiction Affliction on Tor.com, because I'm not really familiar with new sci-fi and fantasy titles, and the site looks sleek and has good content. I am interested in following any of the urban and romance sites, and may do that, but I just don't feel comfortable browsing those covers at work. Who knows what my coworkers would think?!

Assignment 5

•  I think someone should write these books. I would read them!