How To Recommend Books: A Guide for Patrons, by a Library Page

Hello, library patron!

So, you want to recommend books to your local librarian/library page. Great! Library workers, as a general rule, like books, and are always on the lookout for new authors they might enjoy. But, you're having some trouble finding the right way to recommend that great author whom you love so much. You don't want to offend them, and you don't want to bore them. Here is a handy-dandy guide, written by a genuine library worker, employing examples from her four years of library service.

Here are some successful approaches:

1. The direct approach. "You should read Agatha Christie." A bit blunt, but effective. Keep in mind, this should be said in a nice tone of voice, since it could sound sort of rude.

2. The Why-You-Like-An-Author approach. "Have you read anything by Janet Evanovich? You should, she's really funny. She always makes me laugh out loud." Also direct, but with a bit more background.

3. The I-Just-Really-Like-This-Book Approach. "I thought that The Time Traveler's Wife was really good. You should read it." This works.

4. The mutual interest approach. "You like Patrick O'Brian? If you like military history of that period, you should read Bernard Cornwell- he wrote a series of books about the army during the Napoleonic Wars." This is my favorite approach, but it does require some knowledge about your librarian's interests.

5. The Same-Author Approach. "If you liked Dawn's Early Light and Yankee Stranger, you should read Queen's Folly. I like Elswyth Thane." If you know that they like an author, this is always a good plan. Even if they have already read the book, it can lead to fun conversations.

6. The Sequel-By-Another-Author Approach. "You like Sherlock Holmes? Have you read Laurie R. King? She wrote some sequels about him and his apprentice, Mary Russell." If it's a good sequel, this is great. (And in the case of Sherlock Holmes, he of the many pastiches, they might well have something to reccomend back. For example, The Case of Emily V.) (This is also true for sequels of Pride and Prejudice, though many librarians are highly opinionated about these.)

7. The Genre Approach. "You like historical fiction? Try reading Rosemary Sutcliffe, she's a good author." Also effective.

8. The Parroting-Popular-Opinion Approach. "You should read Twilight. Everyone says it's great." It's not the best approach, but public opinion often is decent in regards to books. I mean, The Kite Runner was popular for a reason, right?

9. The What-The-Heck Approach. "I found this book for you in the stacks. Take it out and read it. You'll like it." This is not the best approach, but it will probably make your librarian friend laugh, and that is nice too.

And, two bad approaches.

1. The Offensive-Snobbery-For-No-Good-Reason Approach. "You should read Laurell K. Hamilton. If you don't, people will think you're illiterate." Gee, thanks, lady.

2. The WTF Approach. "I hated this book. I have no idea why my wife ordered it. You can read it if you want." Err, thanks?

Feel free to print out this hand guide to carry with you.

Fun Times at the Library

This post was going to consist of several funny letters to various patrons, dealing with subjects which I have been involved in the past week at the library, but then I realized that the letters were sort of mean and not something to post on the internet. I am still curious about why our recent shipment of rubber bands smelled like fish, I still believe that it is reasonable to expect some level of literacy in our patrons, and I still am curious about the large collection of lesbian erotica left in our book drop, but I am going to leave these questions in peace for right now.

Instead, I am going to comment, in a surprised but happy way, about the sudden popularity of the works of Evelyn Waugh. I would attribute this to the upcoming remake of Brideshead Revisited, which I am rather excited about, by the way, but for the fact that I've recently checked in (or out) copies of Vile Bodies, Decline and Fall, and Helena, as well as Brideshead Revisited. And those are just the ones that have passed through my hands. Is this a case of people hearing about a movie and deciding to read the entire oeuvre of the author? Has Evelyn Waugh been recommended by Oprah recently? Or has the reading public just developed good taste?

Countdown to Greece!

6 weeks, my friends. 6 weeks. I'm insanely excited.

I'm also getting insanely apprehensive- I think the fact that I'm packing up and going to a foreign country for four months is finally setting in- but for the most part very excited. Preparations are continuing.

Anyways, that's actually about all for now- life has been pretty busy actually, and I've been having more than my share of computer issues in the past few weeks, and I've been working a lot. I hope everyone is well.

Crazy Classicists at the Olympics!

I have decided that I would like the Olympics a whole lot more if they were still run by a bunch of vaguely incompetent classicists with little to no athletic training and a knowledge of their sport derived entirely from reading the ancient accounts and looking at vase paintings. And then getting it wrong. And if the American team was still made of plucky underdogs, who made the team mostly because they were willing to go to Athens for a couple of weeks.

You might wonder how I came to this conclusion. It came from watching a very amazing movie. If ever you are looking for an exceedingly pleasant way to spend approximately 4 hours and 40 minutes, my suggestion would be to watch The First Olympics- Athens 1896. My mother found this fabulous movie at the library the other day, and my family has just finished watching it. It is wonderful. Also, it is very informative, since I think that the broad picture that it paints is more or less accurate, even if the details have been changed slightly for dramatic effect.

And what I learned was that the Athens 1896 American Olympic Team was really cool. They didn't have much of an idea of what they were doing, apparently- they were fine with shooting and running, but in terms of track and field events, I think they were pretty much making it up. And they made it up with classics. Apparently they didn't have a discus, so they found a picture of one on a vase and brought it to their local blacksmith, who made them a discus of iron which weighed 30 pounds or something. But, from this somewhat shaky beginning, they went to Athens and actually did really, really well. (And won the discus event. Sweet.) And, the next year, they ran the first Boston Marathon, because they ran a marathon in Athens and thought the symbolism was cool.

Anyways, this actually was a pretty good movie, which I enjoyed immensely. I'm quite serious. The acting was uneven, and the film was unabashedly sentimental and pro-American, but it was uplifting and pleasant and a nice mixture of funny and interesting. And it's not that I don't like the Olympics of the present day- I like the winter Olympics if only because it's one of the only chances one gets to watch curling on television- but I think they were sort of cooler when they weren't so regulated and high tech. And the people wore doofy shorts and shoes that looked like jazz shoes.

On the question of marathons, I am now extremely confused. Because in Herodotus, it seems pretty clear that Phidippides was an Athenian who ran to Sparta in two days, and saw Pan while he was running through the mountains, etc. But the movie pretty specifically said that he was the guy who ran from Marathon to Athens after the battle of Marathon, and died after announcing his message with a smile on his lips, etc. So what is going on? Specifically, where does this second story come from? I have to do some research.

I Would Stop Posting Pictures of the Animals...

...if they stopped being so darn adorable.

In Which Al Has Found A Cave

Bertie is combining his love of sitting in enclosed spaces with his love of sitting on the table and his love of looking sort of vacant. Isn't he such a sweety?

In Which Gabby, Our Fearless Defender, Warns Us About A Very Evil Log.

You can see the evilness from here.

I Have A Sister!

My younger sister came home from Germany yesterday! Yay! This is very exciting, since she left shortly after I came home from school and has been in Germany for nearly a month now. (She's been on an exchange program, like the one that I did in high school. Only I was in France, not Germany.) It is very nice. Gabby has her entire flock back, we once again fill up the car when we go places, and the table needs to be set with five place settings, not four. The animals are also celebrating. The home is full. It is very exciting.

Also, I need to share a gift that Kate got me while in Germany. It is a very cool poster. (Kate is clearly an intelligent young lady, and noticed my interest in classics. She's very observant.) Specifically, it's a whole bunch of the Greek gods from an altar, and I'm going to hang it up in my room as soon as I remember to bring up tape. Which will hopefully be soon. She got it at the Pergamon, which is a museum that I would dearly like to go to, and I would be jealous, but for the fact that I am going to Greece next semester, so I will get to see a lot of very cool museums. Kate also got a cool bag from a planetarium, which says "do not fill with hot stardust," but in German. Very exciting.

On an exciting Greece front, I have my first euros for Greece! Specifically, Kate came home with 26 euros and I traded American money for them. They're pretty nifty. Ha ha! I will get to Greece and have bills that are not in awkwardly large denominations!

And, in an even more exciting bit of news, I have realized that I will be in Greece in less than two months! Yay!

I hope everyone is having a lovely day.

In Which Caroline Reads and Various Cats Help

Note: this is what happened when I tried to read in my room this morning.
Why yes, that is Pink sitting behind my computer, threatening to knock things over if I don't pay attention to him right now.
And yes, that is Mr. George, lurking under my desk, also threatening mayhem if I do not pay attention to him in the immediate future.




Essentially, reading in the house of Mahoney can be a difficult task, especially when you are in my room, which is the lair of multiple animals and also a battleground when they are feeling cranky. Which they often are.

While on the subject of cats, today my mom found a book at the library by the name of Kitty Knitting. It has a large number of cat-themed knitting projects in it, which are all very tempting. (Well, not all. But some of them are.) When I have finished with the cape of doom, I think we know what my plans are.

Crazy Thunderstorms of Doom!

It has been a great few weeks for thunderstorms.
The one today went as such. It was a lovely day, and I was up in my room. Then, it started. First, it went really still. And then it went really dark. And then, the heavens opened up and suddenly it was very loud and very windy and very wet. The thunder was terrible- and happening at just the same time as the lightning. Water was pouring in the windows and doors, and when you looked outside all you could see were sheets and sheets of it. The trees you could see were blowing totally sideways in the wind. Gabby was having a spaz attack in the laundry room. There were sirens somewhere off in the distance.
And then it stopped. And now it is sunny.
I hope everyone is having a lovely day!

Edit: Apparently, Cabot Street was knee-deep in water, which in all my years of working at the library I have never seen before. Dane Street? Sure, it floods every time there's a bit of a drizzle. But Cabot? Clearly, this weather is crazy.