Week 5: Assignment 1
What useful information have you learned from the resource that you have been monitoring  since week one?  Blog about it.

I have been sporadically following both Early Word and StreetFiction sites. The StreetFiction site doesn't get updated much, and when I do see a new title, it's more like an advertisement than a review. As a result, I haven't been following that site much. I also have been looking at Early Word. I like the interviews, the trailers for movies from books, etc. I also like the lists they have, like the Amazon Best of the Month, Indie Next Lists, and other book lists. The new books are often overlapped in other resources I look at; however, the movie trailers based on books are the most useful new information I get on Early Word.

Week 5: Assignment 2What’s popular in your branch?  If it’s “popular” or “commercial” fiction then you want be sure to look at The New York Times Best Seller List or People Magazine.  For forthcoming titles check the Publisher’s Weekly On Sale calendar. If literary fiction and narrative nonfiction is popular, you can monitor the Indie Next Best Seller List (formerly BookSense) and NPR.  Do your customers want to read the book before themovie comes out?  More than likely, you have a diverse mix of customers who have equally diverse reading preferences, but all of these resources are available via Early Word.  Take a look at the site and click around; there are lots of links in both sidebars.  Post to your blog: What resources are new discoveries for you?  What do you think that you will continue to use?

Unfortunately, our branch community is not a community of readers. They love to consume DVDs! Movies, TV series, documentaries...you name it! [They are] NON-STOP! However, we do have a few stalwart and faithful readers, and most commonly, they like (of course) James Patterson! I even have one lady who knows what is coming out when and puts them on hold as soon as they show up on order in the catalog so she can be at the top of the wait list. Other popular books include series/books by authors like Michael Connelly, CJ Box, John Sandford, and Clive Cussler. We also have a handful who enjoy the erotica, like Sylvia Day, as well as a small group that likes the Urban fiction. The kids that do read tend to pick up the usual popular things, like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dork Diaries, etc. They also enjoy graphic novels.
I think the most useful sidebar section of Early Word, due to our DVD-loving constituency, is:  Moves & TV Based on Books -- Trailers, Offical Web Sites.

Week 5: Assignment 3 Pick a title from Amazon’s Best of the Month, found under the righthand “Coming Soon” sidebar on Early Word.  Write a blog post using appeal factors or read alikes to describe the title.  Why is this title expected to be popular and to whom would it appeal?

The title I picked from Amazon's Best of the Month is from the children's category (middle grade): The Trials of Apollo, Book 1: The Hidden Oracle.
The appeal factors of this title include an action-packed, fast-paced story which mixes Greek and Roman mythology in modern times. Since the main characters are teenagers, middle school kids and older would enjoy reading novels with heroes they can identify with. If they have read the two other series by Rick Riordan that are about Greek and Roman mythology, the kids will enjoy the continuation of those series.
Read alikes include:any of the books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and any book in the Heroes of Olympus series.
This title will be popular because Rick Riordan has written multiple mythology-related series that are popular with kids. The primary audience will be upper elementary, middle school, and even adults and young adults. 

Week 4-Goodreads

I originally joined Goodreads more than five years ago and had been a faithful, avid user. I logged all my books, rated the ones I finished, created shelves and to-read lists, shared book recommendations, entered giveaways, and challenged myself to the yearly reading challenge. However, after GR was bought by Amazon, among other factors, I closed my account and transferred my entire log to another site (thankfully there was a time-consuming but easy method to import the lists). While GR is superior in its ease of use, app functionality, depth and breadth of books and users, I was reluctant to come back a few years ago. I set up the account mostly to share books with my sister, and until this week, my account has never seen much action. I do read reader reviews, but I hardly contribute anything, until now.

GR is a great site for bibliophiles. Not only does it help keep track of all the books read, but also helps by keeping a to-be-read list. I used to open up the to-read shelf every time I was in a bookstore or library to remind me what I was looking for, and inevitably, I would add more as I perused shelves. I also enjoy reading the reviews people write. I don't usually decide to not read a book based on a bad review (or several); I use GR in conjunction with reviews I read elsewhere, like Book Page, Shelf Awareness, NYT Book Review, etc.
GR is also fun for the reading challenge, has the fun giveaways that I never win, and is an easy way to keep track of what others (your friends) are reading. As I mentioned, my sister likes to send me updates and recommendations through GR rather than standard boring email or text.

I have over 600 books on my shelves at my usual book-tracking site, so I took about 60 random titles and rated them in GR for this assignment. Interestingly, the recommendations received were heavily based on just a few books I have read (or marked as to-read, for the to-read recommendations). What I like better are the lists in Listopia. I have used those lists to try and find new books to read that are similar to something I read, and it's fun to see how different books get lumped together by odd common threads.

Conversation 1:

Librarian: Hi, is there anything I can suggest?

Customer: I’m looking for a good story, you know, something that draws me in. But I don’t know where to start looking.

Librarian: What was the last book you read? Could you share something you liked about it?

Customer: The last book I read was Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Everyone is reading it so I had to pick it up. It was lovely. She is such an interesting woman and so brave. I enjoyed the descriptions of the countries she went to and what she did while she was there, of course, but I think what I liked most was how she shared her inner thoughts — so reflective but funny too. I thought it might be just light fluff or all me, me, me, me, but it was so much more than that. I read all the Oprah books and just love them. Anyway I wanted to ask you for a few suggestions for my book group. It’s my turn to pick the title.

It seems that this customer picked up on the appeal factors of characterization/voice of the author, the exotic settings, and the humor. In this case, I would recommend she try a Bill Bryson book. I find his travel books to be humorous with his inner thoughts and observations. For an exotic setting, In a Sunburned Country fits the bill, since it is all about Australia and his adventures there, including venturing into bush country. A Walk in the Woods, which is a domestic setting, is still exotic in the sense that he is exploring the Appalachian Trail. I really enjoyed his detailed descriptions, as well as the funny scenes (such as when he and his friend realized they overpacked for their hike...)
Another pair of authors I enjoy, if the customer really likes humor, is the mother-daughter pair of Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella. They write humorous, personal essays individually, yet publish them together in books. Their insights, thoughts, and interactions are entertaining, as well as the stories about their family, especially the late Mother Mary. While the locations are not exotic (primarily located in Pennsylvania and NYC), the energy and warmth of their relationship is clearly exhibited in their essays.

Conversation 2:

Customer: Can you recommend any vampire books that are nothing like the Twilight series?

Librarian: Let me see how I can help you. What don’t you like about Twilight?

Customer: Everything, but especially that teen love story – way too much angst! And way too slow.  Have you read any good vampire stories lately? 

If you're looking for a different kind of vampire story, I would highly recommend Justin Cronin's Passage trilogy (of which two are available), The Passage  and The Twelve. [The third one is FINALLY coming out this May!!] The vampires that inhabit Cronin's post-apocalyptic world are not the typical elegant, sexy vampires, but rather, scary creatures with amazing abilities. The books are epic in scope and detail. And unlike the Twilight books, The Passage trilogy is more like a suspense-filled horror novel rather than a teenaged angst-ridden love story about glittery vampires. The pace is quick, with detailed characterizations and settings of the U.S. filled with more vampires than people.

Other vampire books I can recommend include The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, which is also another epic historical fiction novel, rich with detail and that takes the reader around the world, and Salem's Lot, which is an old Stephen King novel, written when he was still "just" a horror writer. Salem's Lot is definitely creepy and fast-paced; I still remember a creepy scene with Danny Glick and a window.

Librarian:  Hi, are you looking for anything in particular? 

Customer: I just read this great book The River of Doubt.  It was about Teddy Roosevelt and this ill fated expedition to chart an uncharted river in the Amazon.  They lost almost all their provisions, the president was injured, and it turns out one of their crew was a murderer since there was a murder.  And the most amazing thing was that it true.  It was fascinating and really fast paced.  Do you have anything to recommend that is like that?

For true and compelling stories, I would recommend a Lauren Hillenbrand book, like Seabiscuit or Unbroken. I enjoyed both books and thought that the narrative flowed smoothly without being weighed down too much by laborious details. There's definitely tension...whether in reference to horse racing or World War II/POW.
Although I didn't read this particular book, I've heard good things about Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air. A narrative non-fiction tale, it tells the story of a tragedy in 1996 to a Mt. Everest climbing party, which Mr. Krakauer was a member. The topic is compelling, and from the summary and reviews of the book, there is much drama to be found. I've read another book by Mr. Krakauer, that while an interesting read on a compelling topic, would not fit this customer's desire for a fast-paced non-fiction book.