Be More Bookish : Final Thoughts

So, what is my take-away from this adventure?

Overall, this training made an appeciable difference in how I provided Reader's Services.  I really came to appreciate the methods on how to 'structure' a conversation regarding reader advisory - fortunately for me, I learned a lot prior to this program, and in some of my grad school classes.  Indirectly, this program helped in that I engaged colleagues in conversation on a given week's topic, and it made our Librarian meetings more productive when we would do a roundtable "book talk" for that month.  It became a lot easier for me to incorporate those practices at these meetings, let alone in my regular work out on the public floor. 

I liked several aspects of the training - the genre flowchart, as a concept, is nice. The only thing about that is it just may be better serving if it were a PowerPoint, or a list, rather than a Prezi presentation.  Its not something that is being 'presented' and narrated by another person to an audience, so it wasn't super-conducive to self-directed learning. 

I would suggest a few things for improvement:

Reorder the Priorities

I was confused as to why we were waiting until Weeks 4-7 to then build base knowledge. That, in my mind, should be some of the earliest parts of the program - otherwise, how are we going to structure the RA conversation, or utilize tools and sites like Goodreads and NoveList properly? I feel it'd better to have the basics, and then work with the extra tools at hand.

Clarify Instructions\Scope

I recall many colleagues (and myself) being vexed when Week 6's assignment - building base knowledge of genres - asked them to recall the Genre blogs they were following in Week 1.  While Week 1 asks us to select a genre site and follow it, it makes no mention that it'll be almost five weeks later that we will do something with that.

Likewise, when we were asked to find "fan" sites of particular subgenres, many of us shared that we just couldn't find anything past user-generated lists on Goodreads - I felt like we were sent on a wild goose chase for that assignment.

Week 9: Book Trailers

Last week!

I can't really say I am super-impressed by the book trailers I viewed - which included several designed for young adults.  They seem quite cheesy, and a lot of them have a real "filmed in somebody's back yard" kind of quality to them - I was really displeased with the trailer for Pride & Prejudice & Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls - the bizarre elements that are intrinsic to the "Quirk Classics" series of novels was lost in a morass of bad acting.  The trailers for the Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare was considerably better, on the other hand, with just better directing all around. 

In both instances, I would have been much more receptive as I like those kind of subgenres.  I am sure that book trailers may have some kind of kitschy appeal to some audiences, but if anything it largely turned me off on some of those books.  In light of this, I am rather disinclined to use these trailers as a means of promoting a book or providing reader services - the trailers either take themselves too seriously (ITS THE NEXT GREAT EPIC NOVEL - WITH VAMPIRES!) or is just so bad that it looks like a joke.  If I was certain my advisee was going to like something like this, then I'd encourage them to look into it.

Week 8

Food - 641.5973 - Adam Richman's America the Edible: a Hungry History, from Sea to Dining Sea.

Science - 539.7 - Ian Sample's Massive: the Missing Particle that Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science

Medicine - 616 - Michelle Au's This Won't Hurt a Bit: My Education in Medicine and Motherhood

Sports - 797.32 - Beth Hamilton's Soul Surfer


I would recommend Adam Richman's America the Edible to a customer who is looking for a little inspiration on where to travel - and, more importantly, where and what to eat while they're there.  Richman is also the host of Travel Channel's Man vs. Food program, wherein he travels to different cities to sample the local fare and undertake different food-related challenges.  Customers looking for a little humor and a little history behind these locales would find this book to be an interesting read - it contains not only that, but some recommended eating spots and recipes based on his travels in the region. 

This Won't Hurt a Bit, by Michelle Au, tells the story of balancing a life of medical school, and then trying to balance being a mother with her medical residency.  She tells her personal story in this book, trading between stories both triumphant and tragic - both at home and work.  The author manages to relate her own journey in a way that anyone - including someone who is not a medical professional - can pick up and relate to.

Week 7

I always found it strange that there was so much time and effort devoted to distinguishing between "teen" and "tween", "young adult" and "new adult".  I think the moniker of "New Adult" is incredibly pointless, especially after reading Deahl's article.  It just further serves to confuse readers and it treads upon ground I feel has already been covered by the term "Young Adult".  Teens and adults, I feel, both know what they want to read - and trying to wedge them under some other label doesn't accomplish anything. 

The other article, "YA Comes of Age", acknowledges the trend that YA has been moving readers into older age brackets, and the demand for content has only gotten stronger as more "adult-adults" have trended into that particular marketing group.  A lot of the demand stems from the compelling content, which I would wager seems more "fresh" than more standard fare that has existed as Classic Adult literature.  Nevermind that the YA content runs dangerously close to repeating itself too much for its own good, the fact remains that there is still a lot of buyers and readers out there for it.

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I followed both John Green's Tumblr\Site and the "Forever Young Adult" sites.  Green's site was geared a little more towards "young" adults (think 'early 20s'), with a lot of humorous (or semi-humorous) topical posts on a wide variety of topics.  Most of those topics touch on current issues like gay marriage or the turmoil in Egypt.  He writes primarily to this audience, engaging them in discussions on these topics.  The Tumblr page is a little more 'connected' to his audience (whereas his site is a little more serious) and his fans (aka "Nerdfighters") are able to regularly communicate with him.

Forever Young Adult is a little more about media that is relevant to young adults - movies, books, and television.  Its written smartly, and carries additional interesting offerings like DIY projects and editorials.  Its written more broadly, so no one age range is focused on too extensively.  The site appeals to readers who like kitschy articles, and features a store of quirky merchandise - a bespoked peacock with an "Austentatious" caption elicited a good chuckle from me.

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A lot of forthcoming books - at least, from what I am reading on Harper and Tor Teen - is a lot of "something borrowed, something new".  Titles are described as drawing from classic authors (like Jane Austen) while engaging in a darker, more "fractured" method of storytelling.  In terms of genre, it seems that fantasy or sci-fantasy is the soup du jour, still!  Lots of vampires and werewolves, lots of moody settings.

Comments posted to Marilyn S.'s blog and Meliss B.'s