Lab A: The Readers’ Advisor is In
By Chrisynthia Casper
Doing a reader’s advisory interview was a task that I thought that I had been doing correctly all along, even before I starting working in a library. Because I have such a love for books, every time I see someone reading or the topic of books comes up, I find myself asking about their reading preferences and discussing in great length whether they liked or disliked a book. And I always find myself recommending or even giving them one of my books. I was in fact performing a good reader’s advisory, but having taken this course I now realize some of the mistakes I had been making and how I can more effectively go about completely the task going forward. As I had a discussion with the five people I used as guinea pigs to complete this assignment, I tried to keep in mind the things I have learned about reader’s advisory.
One mistake that I was previously making that I corrected was assumption. I would ask someone the type of books that they liked or had enjoyed in the past and I would make the assumption about the types of books that they would enjoy and not allow for any other genre. For instance, my first guinea pig, we will call her Lynn for the purpose of this assignment. Upon investigation into the types of books that she had previously read and enjoyed, on the top of the list was 50 shades of Grey. She could not put the book down and ended up reading all three books. I already knew this from previous conversations with her about the books, and up to that point had assumed that she liked them because of the erotic scenes and domination aspects. When I started this assignment I thought she would be an easy pick because I just knew I could find her a book with similar ideas. I quickly found titles by Silvia Day and Maya Banks that I thought she would enjoy. And for the most part she did like the titles that I selected but I knew that it wasn’t mind blowing for her and I could do better. So I then decided to ask further questions about her likes. Why did she enjoy the 50 Shades phenomenon? Yes, the erotic stuff was great and probably why she couldn’t put it down but the underlying reason she enjoyed them was because the rich powerful man fell to love of the plain Jane character featured in the book. I probed about other titles that she really liked trying to find some correlation between a few titles so I could find her something that gave her more than the erotic element shared in 50 Shades and Maya Banks. She also liked the Hunger Games trilogy. I asked what about that series appealed to her. The sacrifice of the main character for her sister and for other people touched her. This made me think that books about unconditional love for others with a bit of drama could be perfect for her. I recommended, “War of the Wives” by Tamar Cohen. I found this book because I had recently seen it on the new book shelf and when I went looking for a book with alot of drama, yet filled with an unconditional love story, this was the first book I thought of. She has not had a chance to read all of the books that I recommended to her but she did say that all of them appear to be great titles and looks forward to reading them. I started out thinking I knew what kind of books Lynn would enjoy based on her like of erotica stories and quickly recommended other books in the same genre, which were good books but was limiting what books that I could give her by my assumptions.
My next guinea pig, named Sunshine enjoys reading but lacks time to do much of it. The little time that she does have, she wants what she is reading to be a great book. One that is exciting, and keeps her attention. I found all this out by asking about her previous reading habits. I also asked her what other books she enjoyed, what about them intrigued her and what books has she disliked. Her likes included many different types of books and authors. To include, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, the books “Orphan Train”, “Where The Heart is” and “One Thousand White Women”. She couldn’t think of a book that she necessarily disliked but knows that if she didn’t like a book she just doesn’t finish reading it. She’s too busy to spend time getting through a book that doesn’t hold her attention. Most books that she didn’t finish were because they just weren’t exciting enough to draw her in for very long. This leads me to another mistake I was making before taking this course, upon asking her these questions I would probably have chosen two books for her, one each from two different genres. More than likely I would of chosen a Kristian Hannah book and then I would of found someone similar to Koontz or King. I do think she would of enjoyed either of these options but I wanted to use my skills learned to try and come up with a title that emcompasses both her reading likes. I had to go back and ask a few more questions about what she likes specifically about these books. She enjoys the history intertwined into these titles. She enjoys the suspense of the titles and she enjoyed the love story or the human emotion within the stories. I spent a lot of time searching sites that had read-a-likes. Novelist offers a great tool for read-a-likes for authors as well as for titles. I also used Goodreads to find similar works to these authors that she liked. I also did a bit of just browsing shelves and reading articles to find titles that could work for her. In the end I decided to recommend Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. Nothing directly lead me to this series but a mention of the new TV series adapted by the series by a patron and why she had enjoyed it made me think that it could fit into Sunshine’s genre. The patron I spoke with loved the time travel involved and stated it creates a suspense but that she couldn’t guess how the book would end. She was surprised by what happened each time she read the series. That suspense element was similar to Sunshine’s and it also included the human emotion. I learned during this course that it easy to place a patron’s reading habits into specific genre, but you have to dig into what exactly they like about a book. Those traits can extend into many different genres. By using the elements instead of limiting it to a certain genre, I can broaden her options and still make her happy.
My next mistake/guinea pig went a little different. He was the last person I did reader’s advisory for and I was determined to make sure I followed all the things I learned in class. I wanted to give him as many options as I could find. I asked the same questions: what have you read, what did you like/dislike about them, what authors do you like? He gave me two answers. Dean Koontz and Stephen King. He couldn’t tell me what exactly he liked about those books he had read, except that they were interesting. I also asked what kind of TV shows and movies he enjoyed. He shared that he enjoyed, “Under The Dome” and most all the shows on Showtime. I went immediately to work finding him similar authors to Koontz and King. I used many sources, such as Goodreads, Google search, Novelist, Amazon, Fantastic Fiction and What Should I Read Next. I found many authors that I thought he may enjoy and gave him a list. Peter Straub, RA Salvatore, and Ira Levin. I said they wrote stories that were similar to his favorite authors. He didn’t want any of the books I suggested. So I asked more questions, what books exactly did he enjoy. All of them! So I asked if he enjoyed the ones that were made into movies more than the others. Nope, loved them all! So I asked if the bizarre creepy characters or the pace of the book was intriguing to him. Both! So I asked (getting a little discouraged) if the plot of the story or the characters stuck out to him more. Both! I asked then if the books in a series were better or did that matter to him. Didn’t matter! At this point I didn’t know how else to proceed other than find more stories that were similar to some of the stories that these authors wrote. I wondering if VC Andrews or Joe Hill would appeal to him. Lastly I ask him if he only wanted to read those two authors. Yep! (Face Palm). So then I proceeded a little differently. I asked the last book he had read by both authors. He had read every current book by both authors but I shared with him the books upcoming by both authors. He was happy with this. I realized that I was missing a big question in my reader’s advisory. I needed to ask if they were willing to read other authors. I have been asking what they like and they shared that information but I didn’t bother to ask what they may want in the future. I just figured he would be willing to read whatever I gave him. He only wanted what those two people had written. Period!
Guinea pig number four, Ann is an avid reader of Paranormal romance novels. She reads several books a week. She buys books as soon as they come out and is on top of upcoming books in the series that she reads and authors that she likes. When I asked the normal questions about what she wanted, had read and likes/dislikes, all that she really wanted were other authors that wrote similar to her favorites. I asked the authors she is reading now and if she wanted the same kinds of books, the paranormal romance or did she want to try out something new. And also if there were any subjects that were off limits. She only wanted authors...only paranormal romance. So I spent some time looking up authors that did paranormal romance on Goodreads, Google and Novelist. She was already aware of Christine Feehan, J.R. Ward, Jeaniene Frost and Gena Showalter. One of her favorite topics in paranormal romance is shape shifting so I wanted to find at least one other author that fell into that category. I found for her Shelly Laurenston, Marian Maddix, Suzanne Wright and Laurann Dohner. I knew that she was capable of finding other titles and shared with her not only these authors but a website that was great for her kind of reading preferences. http://paranormalromancewriters.com/. There are great search options on this site and very easy to use. She appreciated the site and the authors.
The last guinea pig was really simple, just like Ann. This person, named Sue for the assignment is really very capable of finding their own books. They search the OPAC at their library, place their own holds, frequent their library, buy books online and love to read. Sue really only wanted some recommendations for websites to find books and get reviews. I asked the sites that she currently uses and mostly she uses amazon to find books then places them on hold at her library or buys them directly. So I recommended Novelist. She was uncertain about whether her library subscribed to the service but I showed her how to do searches and find read-a-likes for her favorite authors and titles. I also suggested Goodreads, BookRiot, LibraryThing and Shelfari. I also asked her if her library offered a newsletter for upcoming books purchased that she could sign up for. Sue was pleased to be given so many places to find books and liked the ease of use in the sites that I gave her.
Although I have been doing what I thought was reader’s advisory all this time, I did realize some mistakes I had been making while discussing books with patrons. Those mistakes came to light once I started this assignment and took this course. I didn’t do a terrible job the way I was doing it before and the patrons never missed a beat, but I feel more confident now that I can find ways to expand authors and books or possibly just ways for patrons to find those books themselves.
References
Amazon (nd). Retrieved May 1, 2015 from www.amazon.com
Bookriot (nd). Retrieved May 1, 2015 from www.bookriot.com
Fantasitic Fiction (nd). Retrieved April 29, 2015 from http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/
Goodreads (nd). Retrieved April 29, 2015 from www.goodreads.com
Library Thing (nd). Retrieved April 30, 2015 from www.librarything.com
Paranormal Romance Writers (nd). Retrieved May 1, 2015 from http://paranormalromancewriters.com/
Shelfari (nd). Retrieved April 17, 2015 from www.shelfari.com
What Should I Read Next (nd). Retrieved April 17, 2015 from www.whatshouldireadnext.com
