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.