Week Thirteen

We're in the home stretch! I hope that you are progressing well on your final projects - I have yet to have anyone ask me for help in finding a librarian to work with, so my guess is if you are doing Lab B you all already know who you are working with. If you are doing Lab A you should be finding your folks to experiment on now to give them time to read some of your picks and respond to how well they like them. Please let me know if you have any questions - I am very flexible, but I do expect a certain level of work from this project and you won't have time to revise it if you turn it in the day it is due. But going by the work you guys have been doing all semester everything will be great.

So this week we are tackling a few "genres" (really they're formats/ age ranges) that seem to be skyrocketing in popularity. Be sure and check out all the readings and links listed in the syllabus!!

Young Adult
Young adult books are kind of on the fence between being a genre and not being a genre. Obviously, they are mainly supposed to be an age group, with different genres interspersed throughout. However, young adult books now tend to share certain characteristics that make them very popular among both teens and adults. These characteristics include a fast pace and likeable young main characters who are facing issues that do not devalue or minimize the problems that teenagers face.

New Adult
New Adult books are similar to YA - however the characters are slightly older and there is generally more sex (think Sarah J. Maas). They may be going to college for the first time or on a military deployment. Here's some information:

Meg-a-Rae: This is a video podcast from an IUPUI grad, who has since moved on to another job. She and her co-worker discuss a couple of New Adult titles and the genre. 

Betwixt and Between: A collection development article on the New Adult genre I published a few years ago in the Library Journal.

Graphic Novels
Like Young Adult, graphic novels aren't really a genre, they are a format and they contain different genres. Graphic novels have been steadily increasing in popularity for years. Some of the works that you should know include the Watchmen, Maus, The Death of Superman, and Persepolis. All of these titles have had a great influence on graphic novels, and have helped to propel them from comic book status to award-winning stories in their own right. Many very popular novels or series of novels have been made into graphic novels as well - especially urban fantasy. Also, it's become a theme for some popular science fiction shows that have gone off the air to continue their series as graphic novels - Firefly for instance.

The main difference in doing RA for graphic novels is that you have to take the art style into consideration - many patrons enjoy a particular type of art and just want to read graphic novels that employ that particular style. If you have a difficult time following graphic novels, try reading Scott McCloud's book Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art. He explains some of the semiotics of comic books to help you understand how the artwork influences the story.

Due:

• Prompt response on your blog.
• New Adult and Young Adult annotations posted to blog for this week’s selectors

Week 13 Prompt 

Though this week's group of "genres" all seem very different, they all have in common the fact that many people don't feel that they are legitimate literary choices and libraries shouldn't be spending money on them or promoting them to adults. The common belief is that adults still don't or shouldn't read that stuff. How can we as librarians, work to ensure that we are able to serve adults who enjoy YA literature or graphic novels? Or should we? I can't wait to read your thoughts on this. Thanks!

Week Twelve

Hope you have had a great week! This week we are discussing non-fiction and reviewing different types of book awards.

Non-fiction often poses a dilemma for readers' advisors. If the RA librarian is separate from the Reference Desk, isn't non-fiction the reference librarians' job? However, quite often anymore, someone isn't saying, "I'm looking for a book on social economics," they are saying, "I just read Freakonomics and I found it fascinating, but I was an English major and don't know math. Any other books that are like Freakonimics but that I can understand?" That type of question takes a readers' advisor. What about Freakonomics interested the reader? The sociology of it, or the study of numbers that made it possible? And why?

The difference here is between task-based and non-task-based books. If the reader is looking for a book to show them how to fix the sink, a guide to the best hikes in the area, or a biology textbook, appeal is not as relevant. However non-fiction is very readable, and many people, myself included, read it for pleasure. These readers are the ones who need our help.

Neal Wyatt has written the book on RA for Nonfiction. In it, Wyatt discusses how we can do what we do with fiction for non-fiction. Here is what we need to look for in the non-fiction we read and suggest:

Narrative Continuum  - How much does this book read like a novel? How many narrative devices does the author use to make it a page-turning work?
Subject – Many people are looking for a subject, just as in fiction they are looking for genre. However, a person who says they want to read about the restaurant business because they loved Kitchen Confidential are going to enjoy the equally raunchy and irreverent behind-the-scenes take on the hotel industry Heads in Beds more than A Thousand Hill to Heaven, the inspirational story of a couple who opened a restaurant in war-torn Rwanda.
Type - memoir, biography, letters, essays, history, social sciences, reporting, travel narratives - these are all types of non-fiction that readers will ask for. Often they won't know the word for it.
Appeal - We can use a lot of the same appeal factors that we use for fiction:
Pacing- influenced by fact and theories, needed to be digested by the reader; also how much knowledge of a subject a reader brings to it the faster the pace will go. The more narrative a story is the more quickly it will unfold. For readers who want more details and facts about the subject this isn't always a good thing - however for readers looking for an enjoyable take on the subject it can be.
Characterization - reader interaction with characters vary: often the author intends for the reader to either identify with them or to observe them as separate.
Storyline – Affects narrative nature, focus of story, subject treatment. Books with a great story that are highly narrative are the best to “transcend the Dewey Divide”, as Wyatt puts it.
Intent of author – to educate or to entertain? Easy to read or crammed with facts?
Subject focused – history, science, biography; whereas travel cooking memoir – more about story than subject
Detail – descriptions, maps, illustrations etc
Learning / Experiencing -  teachable moments (Freakonomics) versus sharing an experience (David Sedaris)
Language –does writing style matter? – lyrical or sharp edged
Setting – location, does it need to be brought to life? Most NF takes place somewhere
Tone - light or dark

Please do the readings this week and in the syllabus. Wyatt also writes articles for Library Journal that I highly suggest reading - he is an approachable and incredibly knowledgeable part of the RA community and getting to know her work is a great way to keep up with the scholarship on Readers' Advisory.

Due by the End of this week:

• Non-fiction and Literary Annotations

• Prompt Response

Week 12 Prompt
For your prompt this week, please complete the Readers' Advisory Matrix, found on the last page of the reading title "RA Guide to Nonfiction," about a non-fiction book you have read. If you have not read a non-fiction book recently, feel free to use some of the techniques on how to "read" a book in five minutes such as Mary Chelton's handouts or any others we have covered to get a feel for a non-fiction book. I look forward to reading these!

Week Eleven

This week we are talking about ebooks and audiobooks. Ebooks are here and whether we like them or not, we need to support our patrons who do. And I won't lie - since the pandemic... these are more relevant than ever when people are stuck at home! Since you all are taking an online course I have to assume that you enjoy technology more than the average bear; but if you still don't like ebooks I hope you decide to give them a try. They may not be for you - but I've yet to meet a voracious reader who tried them and didn't like them. Maybe you don't like them the same way you like your physical books, but just for convenience or travel or to read at night without a light, etc. Personally, I only use them while travelling, but everyone is different!

Audiobooks are a great way to pass the time in cars, I ALWAYS have one on when I'm driving! A narrator can make or break an audiobook, I've had some narrators that were soo awful I had to turn it off after a track or two. But as audiobooks grow in popularity so does their quality. Many celebrities will narrate and many times authors will narrate their own (which is great! I highly recommend Tina Fey's, Trevor Noah's, or Amy Poehler's audiobooks!).  There are a lot of people who do most of their reading through audiobooks. These patrons will often have favorite narrators, who will greatly influence their choice of books. I will listen to anything narrated by Wil Wheaton or James Marsters (Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer); they could narrate a phone book and I would still want to listen!

Also, don't forget to check out the module and do those readings as well! I know there is a lot of reading this week, but it's all very useful!

Now that specter of the midterm assignment has passed, I would like to remind you that you are soon going to need to start working on your end of semester assignment if you haven't already. Remember, you have two options, but both require time and planning. Take a look at the assignments again and start thinking!

Due by the end of this week:

1. Prompt Response

2. Fantasy, Historical Fiction, and Western Annotations

Week 11 Prompt 

Ebooks and audiobooks are a part of our landscape. What does the change in medium mean for appeal factors? If you can't hold a book and feel the physical weight of it in your hands, how does that affect your knowledge of the genre? How about readers being able to change the font, line spacing, and color of text - how does that affect pacing and tone? How about audiobooks? Track length, narrator choice, is there music?  For this week, I want you to think about how ebooks and audiobooks affect appeal factors - also think about appeals that are unique to both mediums. Please feel free to use your own experience and that of your (anonymous of course) patrons. I look forward to reading these!

Week Ten

  No class this week! Enjoy your spring break :)

Week Nine

Well, we are officially more than halfway through the semester! Congratulations - hope this is proving to be a fun and useful class for everyone.

This week we should have fun. Learning to moderate a book group can be like walking a tightrope - you want to find works with enough meat to provide good discussions, but you have to get to know your group and try to find books that will appeal to all. At the same time, don't feel bad making people get out of their comfort zone - reading books they are unfamiliar with is half the reason a lot of people join book groups. I will share a few examples from the previous instructor's book club groups (she had such great examples, I couldn't not share!):

"I once choose a Tom Robbins book, Another Roadside Attraction, for a book group I ran that my at the time boyfriend's mother belonged to. I hadn't read it in ages, but I remembered thinking it was brilliant. In case you are unfamiliar with Tom Robbins, he is very descriptive and enjoys talking about anatomy and drug use. In this case, he spent pages describing one particular piece of female anatomy that is generally not discussed in polite society, and the whole time I was reading it my face was getting more and more red, thinking, "I told Mark's mother to read this!!! What is wrong with me???" In the end, she was offended but not by that - there was some serious blasphemy in the book that I, as a non-religious person, had not even noticed. She still let me marry her son."

"I had some incredibly young, passionate, and intelligent young ladies in one of my book groups. Reading Pride and Prejudice was a wake-up call that infuriated them. They insisted that the women were in a form of slavery and that they should have prostituted themselves rather than being sold like slaves because at least then they would get to choose their clients. While an interesting point, it completely dominated the discussion and offended some of the people who really loved Jane Austen. One of the men in the group said he didn't know why we were reading it because it was irrelevant now as there was no need for feminism. Chaos ensued."

"When we read The Poisonwood Bible a new member came. He had not read the book. He had however, traveled extensively in India. This was not shown to be relevant, despite his repeated attempts to make it seem so by interrupting our discussions with anecdotes starting with, "Well in India they...." It was infuriating and very difficult to moderate. We later made a rule that you had to have read the whole book to participate in the discussion, but only instituted it when he was there. Which was inexplicably often even though he never read the books."

These are just a few examples of issues that she ran into. No book club is perfect! Currently, I am in two book groups myself. They are as follows:

Reading Between the Wines
     - A book club that I started twelve years ago as an excuse to drink with my friends but quickly formed into a "mostly" serious group that was sponsored by Harper Collins for a year and a half (we got free books every month and skyped and live tweeted authors, it was THE BEST). It is by invite only and hosted by a different member very month. Liquor still plays a role but we have gotten much better about actually discussing the book.

Stout Stories
     - I co-run this with one of my co-workers. We meet at a different brewery or winery every month and discuss a book. It's a library program open to those 21 and up. It's so popular that there are often many on the waitlist that can't come. We actually have MEN attend, which is the best thing ever. So often book clubs are dominated by women. Also we have a huge spread of ages, we have lots of people in their thirties, some retired folks, a few parents, etc. It leads to great discussion! We cap it at 20 participants. (pageafterpage.org)

If any of you have had enlightening experiences while leading or belonging to a book group, please share them in the comments.

Now I want to talk about some basic rules for book groups. First of all, if you are moderating, do not lead with your opinion of the quality of the book. Just like in readers' advisory, as a moderator you have a level of authority that will influence the opinions of your group. I also think that in a moderator-led group, there should generally be a rule that you need to have read the book to participate in discussions. Now, there are the less formal book clubs that are more of an excuse to socialize and drink wine where of course, there is a less formal structure. Moderator-led book clubs at a library though, are generally slightly more formal and attended by people who have a genuine interest in discussing the book, and the occasional person who just likes to talk too much.

Two big things to consider when choosing books for your group - length and accessibility. As great a book as it is, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, with over a thousand pages, is not a great pick for a book group that meets monthly. Of course, know your group. A group that reads exclusively historical fiction or epic fantasy is going to be more tolerant of long books than a group that reads literary or general fiction. Also, accessibility. Is the book brand new? That means there will be a waitlist at the library and it's only out in expensive hardcover. Is it out of print? How difficult the book is to get a hold of needs to be a consideration. If you have the power to purchase books for your club through the library of course, this is less of an issue.

Due by Sunday:

Book Club Experience posted to your blog.

Please be thorough! I want a blog post that is at least an equivalent to a page and a half to a two page paper. It does not need to be submitted through Canvas, only your blog. The assignment details and grading rubric however are on Canvas.