Monday, July 29, 2013

Week 5


Assignment 1

I’ve been using Goodreads, which I just talked about in the last entry. Since writing that one, though, I’ve been trying to be more active and have a few more ‘friends’ on the site. I find that cruising their readings lists and seeing their updates has been a much better way to find new books than the recommended lists from the site itself.


Assignment 2

Popular books in the branch tend to be eye-catching new releases. A few customers come in with lists, and some come in with recommendations from friends, but it’s mostly whatever is on display in the new section that looks appealing at the time. The customers here often don’t know what they’re looking for until they see it.

We definitely have a much higher interest in fiction. Even more than usual. Literary non-fiction just isn’t a hit. So we try to focus on the fiction best seller list. We don’t get a lot of “I heard about it on NPR” the way that I used to at other branches. Even the best seller lists fail us sometimes because people are a somewhat resistant to request things. Actually, what seems to work well is finding best seller lists from a few months back. Books that were popular, but interest has waned enough to put copies back on our shelves.

 

Assignment 3

Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell promises to be a dark, fantastical story of an abandoned girl raised by an overly permissive scholar in London. When she turns 12, Sophie sets off on a journey to find her mother, whom she believes to have survived the shipwreck that separated them. The trail leads Sophie to the rooftops of Paris, where she discovers and joins a gang of feral children. Fans of historical fiction with a dash of fantasy should enjoy this book, as well as fans of fantasy with a dash of history and a strong young female lead. This is definitely a must for those folk who cracked open The Golden Compass by Pullman and wished they could spend more time on the rooftops with brash young Lyra at the beginning.  

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