I haven’t had too much time for reading since I started my graduate career back in May 2016, so lately I have been searching for fast reads. Books where the plot moves right along is what I enjoy most. Because I work in Youth Services, I have also been reading more children and teen books lately. I particular enjoy teen realistic fiction because I understand how hard it can be as a teen, and I hope to one day recommend titles that could help with a particular situation.
Because this is an Adult Readers’ Advisory class, let me get back to adult books…
Genres I like to read are suspense, mystery, science fiction, realistic fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, and historical nonfiction. I do not have any ambition to read romances, holiday, or urban. Genres with romance on the side or mixed in a little is perfect for me, but I cannot read one that has it as the main focus. I love main characters who are funny, but they also know when to be serious (i.e. The Martian by Andy Weir and Saturn Run by John Sandford). I also enjoy books with multiple narrators (i.e. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater). I have no preference for settings, although I suppose I can sometimes be biased towards historical eras and cities since I was a history major in college, but setting does not deter me. There is no book I particularly hated. The only books I never finished were historical nonfiction books because they were taking a while to finish and I had to return them.
My goal in 2018 is to simply read more. I do not want to set a goal amount to read until 2019, which will be my first full year since completing school (I’ll finish my MLS career in May 2018). I would like to try a couple genres I have not read before such as horror and western. I also hope to read tons more teen titles this year and become more aware of upcoming teen titles so I can offer excellent RA service to teens.
1/14/18 Update: As of January 14th, I also now plan on reviewing every book I read on Goodreads. I finished my first book of the year (The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn), which happened to be for this class, and I decided I will start off the year even better and become a better reviewer.
Currently I am included in a group at my library who offer RA to patrons over the internet. It is called Next Great Reads, and it works by patrons filling out a form online. I am pretty decent at it. Having taken several minor RA lessons through my library, as well as my contribution to Next Great Reads, I have had some significant experience with RA, but I am always wanting to be better at it. I am hoping this class will help me look deeper into books to find elements I never paid attention to before, and to help me explain books better that would appeal to a patron.
My favorite novels/series are:
1. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
2. The Martian by Andy Weir
3. Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
4. The War That Saved My Life series by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
5. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Hi Carter!
ReplyDeleteI was just reading over your profile and favorites, and we have 2 novels in common on our lists- All the Light We Cannot See and The War That Saved My Life. Each of those books were top on my 2017 list. I also gave The War That Saved My Life to my 12-year-old daughter, and she loved it as well. It is a great book for a wide spectrum of ages and reading interests. I have a great deal of patrons who have memories of WW2, and I recommend this book all the time, as well as All the Light.
You also mentioned enjoying books with multiple narrators. Have you read Lincoln in the Bardo yet? It has an incredible range of narrators. Since I work for a talking books program, I listen to a lot of my books, and Lincoln in the Bardo has over 100 narrators, many of whom are "famous" (David Sedaris and Nick Offerman are the two primary voices).
The Next Great Reads program you mentioned sounds like something that would be a huge asset to our services. I would love to learn more about how it works!
I have not read Lincoln in the Bardo but that sounds interesting! I actually have never listened to an audiobook, so maybe I should have that be one of my first ones I listen to. Thanks for that suggestion!
DeleteHow Next Great Reads works is we have a link on my library's page that takes patrons to a form where they answer a few questions about their reading interests. Questions ask what type of books are they looking for, what books have have read lately, which books they did not like, what did they like about the books they enjoyed, and we also ask for anything else that may help us select books for them. Once submitted, a member of the RA committee at work will distribute these forms to other RA committee members, but they also have a few other library employees, like me, who help with answering the forms. I have completed about 12 or 13 Next Great Read requests, and it has really helped my RA skills.
Great profile and I will have to look into the reading The War that Saved My Life, reading the positive comments from you and Mandy has me curious. I don't think I've read too many books from different points of view, the only one that comes to mind is the Fire and Ice series by George R.R. Martin.
ReplyDeleteWe both have the same goal for 2018. Since starting classes again, leisure reading is next to impossible for me. I am looking forward to this course to enjoy reading again and finding genres that interest me.
Wonderful reading profile! Also, yay for reviewing books on goodreads! It's the only NYE resolutions I keep each year, I force myself to write at least 5 sentences for every book. I can't wait to hear all about your RA at work, I hope you'll take away a lot from this class and put it straight to use :)
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