Conclusions

I found Be More Bookish to be very helpful in cultivating a set of resources that I can now pull from when I am helping customers on the floor each day. Having ReadALike sites and blogs devoted to certain genres helps me stay in the know about novels I might not be inclined to read, but may have a following at my branch. It has also helped me recognize the kinds of genres and narratives possible, which will be especially useful for readers advisory - pulling out appeals and being able to draw on the listening skills necessary to adequately help a patron is essential in exceptional service. The discussions regarding book trailers and demographics (YA, NA, etc.) were also nice because they let me grapple with these thoughts in an informed way. Reading and viewing the materials provided was a nice way to engage in a thoughtful contribution to the discourse surrounding reader's advisory. I feel more informed in dealing with patron issues sand have been able to take away different tools for future use - especially appeal factors and subgenres.

Week Nine

Assignment:


I am still ambivalent towards book trailers after reading Nina Metz's piece on why these usually fail. The first time I saw a trailer, I was perusing Ellen Hopkin's site in search for her newest books and stumbled upon book trailers for a lot of her previous stories. These were like weirdly underambitious YouTube videos that put segments of the book over moving images with a voice over. These were not wildly engaging for me, nor did they provide incentive for me to want to read these books. The quality is low and they often give concrete images to things that stories often leave up to imagination. However, there seem to be some plus sides to these. They give marketing to books that people might not know about unless they were in search of new novels and they definitely fit a niche market of internet users that just stumble around the internet looking for entertainment. While the book trailers themselves may not be the best example of production, they still bring attention to books and the authors and allow readers to anticipate getting the next book into their hands. Book ads that propagate goodreads and other reading sites seem a little more effect. They are flashy while being edgy, and truly simple enough to get the main details for the book out - title, author, date.

Week Eight

Narrative nonfiction is an exciting form of story telling which incorporates the details of nonfiction into a story woven with a lot of the insight and pacing a reader might glean from a fiction novel.


Assignment One:


There are sixteen types of narrative nonfiction categories which are offered in the presentation. Travel stories would be housed in the early 900s, which is where you might find Wild by Cheryl Strayed or Carsick by John Waters. These are stories that incorporate the truth of the travel and the perspective gained. In roughly the 814-818 section, you will find humor and essays. Authors such as David Sedaris (Engulfed in Flames), Amy Polher (Yes Please), and Augusten Burroughs (Running with Scissors) are housed here and have written many stories framed around their actual lives. In the late 900s, you'll have history books which retell historical events and disasters with a plot and conversation that will engage the reader to watch the events play out like a story - this is where Dead Wake (Erik Larson) and many World War II inspired stories will be found. Finally, in the 610s, the medical stories will be found. These will include stories like Stiff by Mary Roach and Ghost Boy by Martin Pistourius that retell dramatic events or medical oddities in an entertaining way.


Assignment Two:


For someone who enjoys novels that are dramatic and disastrous, I would recommend Dead Wake. This novel feels and reads like any fiction story and incorporates a host of characters that develop throughout the novel. It is quick paced, witty at times, but ultimately, will leave you begging to find out what happens to many of the cast of characters. Larson's writing is smooth, eloquent, and sounds like an old friend telling a story from memories.


For someone who enjoys fun, quirky novels about families and life, I would recommend Yes Please. Polher writes like she is talking to you, as if you are her best friend in the world. The stories she gives are funny and quick, but really get the reader engrossed in her humor. From the back reading panel which gives all the reasons you should buy the book, Amy Polher grabs your attention and shows she has something to say - and whatever it is will be hilarious.

Week Seven

Assignment One:

"Not So Young Audience for Young Adult Books"
This piece talks about how young adult novels are a valuable asset that shouldn't be dismissed. As a whole, a lot of people hold the belief that the young adult field champions fairy tale endings which are indulgent fluff. However, the author posits that these books are valuable as a shared experience - one that incorporates a magnitude of situations and traits from various genres. These books provide continued learning in terms of values and integrity as a transition to adult literature.

"New-Adult: Needless Marketing Speak or Valued Subgenre?"
The author speaks to a new field of literature that is targeting a demographic after young adult, but prior to full blown adult fiction. These stories include topics similar to young adult novels - sex and violence, etc. - but at a deeper level with a stronger focus on insight gained from the experience. This genre poses as a shared experience between the reading groups where mothers and daughters might find common ground, or closely related material suitable for each demographic.

As a whole, I believe young adult novels are truly nuanced pieces with complicated characters and fanciful stories. I have been reading mostly teen novels right now and enjoying the unique story lines and the characters in difficult situations. However, with everything, not every book is fantastic so each novel needs to be approached with an open mind.

Assignment Two:

John Green's tumblr
Tumblr in itself is a social platform with multiple forms of media available. John updates it pretty regularly with a variety of styles of information: pictures, text conversations, updates on his projects, and answers to questions. This is a pretty cool resource to get to know the author because you get a lot more of an intimate look at his thought process and, more likely than not, he will participate in witty banter even aimed at himself. The audience would be his fans specifically, or people who might not know who he is but finds him hilarious.

TeenReads
This page seems updated pretty regularly and has a wealth of different perspectives. Teachers and writers make up some of the contributors, but there is an entire board composed of teens which also discuss books and provide reading lists or recommendations. This would be a site useful for people who work in connection with teens as well as teens themselves looking for recommendations. As a whole, the website is really well organized and would be beneficial to help someone looking to explore the teen world of books.

Assignment Three:

Harper Collins Teen
A lot of issues seem to be addressed here spanning a whole field of genres. Mental health, sex and love seem to top the list in terms of subjects. These books appear to follow similar cues of paranormal, chick-lit, classic, and thriller covers with a fun and more diverse twist in what is allowed.

Little Brown Teen
These books all seem really edgy. The fonts are more dramatic,the colors monochromatic, and the images are often a little more darker. These books seem to stay in a edgier fringe of fictional stories about thriller issues: abuse, drugs, violence, etc. However, there is also an array of multicultural stories available.

Week Six

Assignment One:


Early Word has been an interesting website to learn about upcoming information regarding the entirety of the book world - not just books themselves. This is nice because I am learning about movies, tv shows, and spin offs, that are inspired by popular books which I could easily point customers to who enjoyed the first product. I just saw that they are making a Horrorstor tv show and a Goosebumps movie. For people who enjoy these things, this knowledge is really cool to have and throw around. Street Fiction is still a nice site because it is constantly updated with personal reviews of books from different perspectives. I am not an avid blog follower, so I do forget to check in on this one. I have gained more knowledge about these type of stories by perusing the new urban fiction that comes in each week or browsing the shelf to learn more authors to have in my back pocket.


Assignment Two:


- Historical Fiction (Realistic) - based on true events but in narrative form that creates emotion, connection characters, and twists in perspectives.
     - Hannah, Kristen.
     - Hoffman, Alice.
     - Gregory, Philippa.


- Steampunk (Science Fiction) - stories set in historical settings, mostly Victorian, that includes technology as a feature element in development of the plot.
     - Carriger, Gail.
     - Priest, Cherie.
     - Blaylock, James P.


- Hard Boiled (Mystery) - typically antiheroes, the narrators of these stories solve their true crime stories with a perspective of cynicism perpetuated by systems of violence.
    - Daly, Carroll J.
    - Hammett, Dashiell.
    - Chandler, Raymond.




Mash ups of subgenres:
    - Cowboys vs Aliens (movie) - mash up of science fiction and westerns
    - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - mash up of realistic fiction and horror
    - More Happy than Not - mash up of urban and science fiction

Week Five

Assignment One:


Since week one, Early World has been particularly useful as an overall sense of what new books are coming out and what they are most like. The break downs they have in posts are actually really engaging - consumer and peer recommendations, movie tie-ins, book trailers - these type of categories are good because they access different banks of knowledge and will be useful when working with different groups of people who are seeking out books for different reasons. The posts are regular and are brief so you can glean a lot of information just by scrolling down the main page. It also branches out from texts as a whole and gives information about authors and other relevant cultural knowledge.


The StreetFiction website updates consistently with new reviews and also is useful because it will give the bulk release titles for a month / week. What I like about the book the most is the different reviewers giving their own insight into books. Sometimes it seems like the voices from the internet are omnipresent and not really subjective, but this site has an author biography section so you can understand the personal interests. This site hasn't necessary made me more engaged in the genre, but allowed me to stay up to date on it.


Assignment Two:


Popular fiction, mysteries, and romances are definitely the biggest sellers at this branch. The New York Times Best Sellers list is one of the best resources because, often enough, this is the list patrons are using to find new books to search for themselves. Early Word would definitely be useful to find more titles for the mystery or romance genre, but it also seems like these readers stick to authors / series that they are interested in and get as many of those as they like at a time, constantly waiting for new works by them.


Assignment Three:


Speak by Louisa Hall is a sci-fi book that spans generations through the narratives of five individuals each searching to be heard. This book is a quick paced, easy to read novel that is quite a journey to find the overlapping connections between the narrators. The true gem of this novel is how it tells the story of human existence in an on-going and far reaching scope, deliberately reaching the reader in the conversation of their place in the text. Readers who enjoyed Cloud Atlas would enjoy this as a comparable, though far less dense.

Week Four

Goodreads Recommendations:


For colleague number one: Based on the amount of interest in the Harry Potter series, I would recommend the Septimus Heap series to them. It has all the magical elements and the fantastical world that Harry Potter made popular. Moreover, the Septimus Heap series introduces various characters in quick paced dialogue with wide scoped worlds. These series would be similar to people who really enjoy character building in terms of prolonging a series.


For colleague number two: A majority of her reads were dystopian novels, so I would recommend Ender's Game. It is a classic novel that has a lot of dystopian elements such as fatalistic points, dire situations, as well as struggles to combat the elite. The group dynamics in Ender's Game are similar to ones found in Hunger Games and Divergent. The worlds are confined to a smaller scope and there is a larger focus on interactions between power systems.


Goodreads is a valuable resource in terms of storing a bank of knowledge to draw from when customers are asking for recommendations - easier than trying to remember titles or authors off the top of your head. The recommendation feature for both books and authors is helpful as well because it allows for titles you might not have knowledge of with brief overviews to utilize.