About Me

About Me

When I was teen, I was on a heavy Stephen King and Peter Straub reading jag. I couldn’t get enough of these authors. Today I still have my collection of these books residing on a shelf of my bookcase. Sometime in my early twenties I became less enamored with King’s readings. I don’t know if my taste just changed or I had burned out on his style. I have to say though that The Shining by King was the first novel I read of his and my favorite out of all his books.

I then started leaning more toward suspense and thrillers and less of horror. Some of the authors I followed were Mary Higgins Clark and James Patterson. My favorite Patterson novels were The Beach House and When the Wind Blows. They were other suspense authors peppered into the mix, but this is the one genre where I mostly stuck to favorite authors.

When my children were in grade school, the Harry Potter craze was all the rage, and I was just as engrossed in reading the books as they were. I found out at that time how much I enjoyed fantasy and many young adult novels. It seemed that YA authors were more creative in many ways than most adult novel authors. My sister-in-law is a YA librarian at a high school, so she would advise or buy certain books for me to read. For young adult reads I didn’t really stick to one author, but would go off recommendations and reviews for great YA books. Yes I devoured the Twilight series, but I can’t say this was my favorite YA read. The best young adult novels I have read are Jellico Road by Melina Marchetta and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

I still enjoy reading suspense and thrillers as well as many young adult books, but in the last few years, I have also started reading many gentle reads that pull at the heart strings. Again there is no specific author that I stick to, but mostly go off recommendations and reviews to select reads from this genre. Some of my favorites in this category are: Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards.

I am not much of a non-fiction reader unless I’m forced to read it. In addition, I a little romance goes a long way in a book, so I’m not a big romance novel reader.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Week 5 Prompt Response

Ebook only books, which are increasingly popular (especially in the romance genre) see little to no reviews in professional publications unless they have a big name author, and then still it's usually only RT Reviews (formally Romantic Times) or other genre heavy publications. How does this affect collection development?
If Ebooks do not get reviews from the professional sector, I would think they would only have partial success in getting selected for personal or public collections.  I believe it would have a slim chance with public library collections because it would seem library personnel would resort to using professional reviews rather than Amazon or blog reviews.  For those using it for personal collections, I think it would not reach far beyond those who are already (in this example) romance readers.  Those who prefer a certain genre will go to the RT Reviews, Amazon, Goodreads, and blog reviews.

Ebook only romantic suspense novel, one from a blog and one from amazon:   Look over the reviews - do you feel they are both reliable? How likely would you be to buy this book for your library? Is this ebook even romantic suspense?
Well I’m seeing two blog reviews after the Amazon review.  All the reviews are not remotely professional since there isn’t any appeal factors mentioned about the book.  It’s mostly small summaries and opinions on the story line.  Reading them sequentially, the Amazon review provides a spark of interest.  The first blog almost has me sold in wanting to purchase this book for my library; however, the last and mostly negative review snuffs out any interest I may have had previously.  I do not see any suspense involved with this Ebook.  The protagonist in the story doesn’t seem to be a heroine in danger, and I didn’t gather from the reviews that there are plot twists or strong language and violence.  In addition, the mention of the love interest being a billionaire insinuates that the protagonist is going to fall into some easy money at the conclusion of the story, and they will “live happily ever after”.

How do these reviews make you feel about the possibility of adding Angela's Ashes to your collection?
The reviews have a common thread that would compel me to want to add this read to my collection.  Initially the reviews all have descriptors of destitute such as “filth”, “deprivation”, “extreme poverty”, “starvation” throughout the synopsis of the story which would deter anyone from wanting to read such a depressing book.  However, it’s the “love conquers all” ending of these summaries that is the hook to get someone to read this story.  At the conclusion of each of the reviews not only is the power of love mentioned, but also the humor and Irish colloquialisms that provide balance to the story.    

Do you think it's fair that one type of book is reviewed to death and other types of books get little to no coverage?   How does this affect a library's collection?
It’s not fair because there are many hidden jewels that don’t get the publicity.  I have picked up books no one I know has read.  They are not on the popular fiction shelves at the library or book stores, but they are some of the best reads I have ever found.  It seems once an author starts cranking out novel after novel, their books are placed on the “popular reads” lists whether the story is decent or not.  This is not only true with books, but other sources of entertainment as well including music and television.  I’ve started dubbing these actions as McReads, McMusic, or McTV.  I think as readers become more finicky in their preferences for reading, libraries are going to have to dig deeper to find those less known books that are just as good if not better than popular fiction.  This includes having a librarian or staff members that are RA savvy as well.

How do you feel about review sources that won't print negative content? Do you think that's appropriate?
It shouldn’t be all sunshine and bunnies.  I would like to have some constructive criticism about a book.  I think most readers want honesty about a read, and some of the negative points, for example strong language or graphic sex, should be mentioned.  Yes initially it may lose some readers that may have picked up that book to read, but in the long run, the reviewer will gather more of a following due to this honestly.  So for example, if I’m the type of person that doesn’t like descriptive sex in a novel, I go to what I consider a trustworthy review source, find a book that only mentions the positives, start reading the book, become ticked because it had so much graphic sex, and I just wasted my time reading part of this book, I may not return to that “trustworthy” reviewer for future reads. 

If you buy for your library, how often do you use reviews to make your decisions? If not, how do you feel about reviews for personal reading, and what are some of your favorite review sources?

I don’t work in a library, and before this class, I mostly relied on Amazon reviews, Goodreads, or family and friends to find new reads for personal reading.  This course is extremely insightful for me to become more knowledgeable on how to maneuver a gold mine of review resources to find new reads for my personal library.
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