1. I read the Anita Blake series so I knew what the fourth book was without looking it up. However, I went into Novelist and searched to make sure that I knew how to find a certain book in a series. I searched for Laurell K Hamilton and clicked on the Anita Blake series. The books were all listed in chronological order. The fourth book in the series is the Lunatic Cafe.
2. I first did an advanced search in Novelist for Barbara Kingsolver read-alikes. Suggestions were Lorna Landvik's Patty Janes House of Curl and Sandra Dallas' New Mercies. I then did a basic search for the book Prodigal Summer. On the right hand side of the screen are suggested read-alikes. The two that I chose were Edward O. Wilson's Anthill and Nicholas Evans' The Loop.
3. I performed a basic search in Novelist using the keywords "historical Japan". I then browsed through the results for fiction titles that I felt fit within this category. A few books that I felt would fit this category are:
Laura Joh Rowland's The Shogun's Daughter: a Novel of Feudal Japan
Ingrid J Parker's Island of Exile: a Mystery of Early Japan and The Dragon Scroll
Gail Tsokiyama's The Samurai's Garden
I am not sure that these are exactly what the patron was looking for but it is a start. I believe that further information is required so that I could narrow it down better.
4. I searched Novelist for Elizabeth George's Well Schooled in Murder. I then searched thru the recommended read-alikes for books that were similar but not to scary. Good read-alikes are:
Martha Grimes' The Man with a Load of Mischief
Dorothy L Sayers' Whose Body?
Deborah Crombie's A Share in Death
5. I searched using the titles World War Z and then The Walking Dead. Between the two searches I found quite a few books/series that I thought the patron's husband would enjoy.
Mira Grant's Newsflesh Trilogy (Feed, Deadline, Blackout)
Steven C. Schluzman's The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse
Steven Barnes' Domino Falls
Brian Keene's The Rising
Jonathan Mayberry's Dead of Night: a Zombie Novel
I very rarely get asked for read-alikes or suggestions at work. Most of the time it is just a certain book in a series or where on the shelf the book is. To find out the reading order, a fellow employee told me about a site called Fantastic Fiction. Although this site is not exactly "pretty", it does get the job done. I have been able to quickly find the reader order and titles for both adult and juvenile titles. When it comes to finding books for myself, I have found that working in circulation is key. Because I handle the books so often, I am able to find new authors and new titles that look interesting. Now that I know about Novelist, I will search to find read-alikes for my favorite authors.
Amanda - working the circ desk helps me snag the books I hear about from blogs and other places too. If I can't take it home right then (on hold for a patron), or I restrain myself, I end up adding the titles to my Goodreads to-read list. I end up finding more there and yikes! I now I have over 1500 to read! Too little time. :)
ReplyDeleteFunny
DeleteChristina and Amanda,
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the things I miss about working the circ desk (I now work in reference), seeing what patrons are checking out and what's on the hold shelf.
Amanda,
My library also uses Fantastic Fiction to help figure the sequence of series books. I agree it's not pretty but it works.
Amanda, your comment about working the Circ desk being a good way to find out what books are popular with readers reminded me of something. I once knew a cataloger in a smallish library who said that she took home a new book almost every night (mostly YA) before cataloging it into the system the next day. Often, she wouldn't finish the volume, but she claimed that she read enough to give her a good grasp on what the novel was about. She kept a short list of favorite books that she wanted to read all the way through, and checked those out when she went on vacation. That would drive me absolutely crazy, having all those unfinished books floating around in my head!!
ReplyDeleteDid you read the entire Anita Blake series? I stopped during Bullet. I just lost interest. I couldn't put the series down at first! As for the rest of the questions, I love how we all found such different books while using the same source. It's very eye-opening. I think it's great because, depending on how I search in NoveList, I can find different books to suggest for patrons. I'm loving this database! I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't know about it. I was quite embarrassed at first :)
ReplyDeleteI have all of the Anita Blake books but have not read them all yet. I keep finding other books that I want to read from work. One day I will finish the series.
DeleteThe second question I remember she wanted something fast paced so I looked that up. If you don't have the book the person wants there are more questions to ask. I think you have some great suggestions, but it is the patrons choice. You have may books in the read a-likes, so there is a lot to choose from.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I seldom am asked at the reference desk for read-alikes.I wish more people would ask readers' advisory questions. I want to start people asking questions regarding readers' advisory and read-alikes by putting up displays and handouts in various places in the library. I am going to talk to my supervisor about it when he gets back from vacation!
ReplyDelete