Summer Reading: Movie to Book Suggestions

The coverage at NPR books never ceases to amaze me. It just keeps getting better and better. Yes they have the standard reviews of new books and interviews with authors, but they also go out of their way to provide book discovery for their readers and listeners in new, interesting, and extremely useful ways. 

Click here to get links to some of their other wonderful suggestion engines and/or resources that I have highlighted on the blog in the past. Any or all of them could be used to find a great summer read, but today I want talk about the newest list from their Summer Entertainment Guide, "Like These Movies? Here are 100+ Things You May Also Like..."

Not the catchiest title, I know, but so practical.  They made this list because no one else had done it, they realized someone needed to, AND they did it with their human brains, not a computer algorithm.  

From their site:

A lot of what we read and watch comes to us through recommendation algorithms. Amazon tells us: People who bought this book also bought this other book, and Netflix says: Because you watched this movie, we think you should watch this other movie.And we welcome our new recommendation robot overlords! 

But this summer, we're going old school — because we haven't found an algorithm that says: If you loved this movie, you'll devour this graphic novel. (Or like this podcast, enjoy this short story ... you get the idea.) 

So we've called in some human help. Here are more than 100 recommendations, courtesy of the living, breathing staff and critics at NPR.

This is a wonderful summer reading suggestion tool for you to pass on to your patrons-- or use it on them.  The suggestions are as diverse and varied as the people who will walk in your doors [who is everyone and anyone].

[On a side note: I personally love the list because it mentions two of my favorite books from 2015 that I recommend to readers at least once a week; heck, yesterday I recommended both of them in the same day to different people: Seveneves by Neal Stephenson and Delicious Foods by James Hannaham.]

Enough about me though. Back to the NPR list.....

Not only is this a great database of suggestions delivered in a way no one else has done, it is also a great conversation starter. Many library workers tell me they have trouble trying to make connections between books and movies for patrons.  Well, no more excuses.  NPR has gotten the conversation started for you. Now it is your job to take the opening and run with it. Summer is the perfect time to practice. We have more people coming in the doors looking for a “good read,” so there are more opportunities to start the RA conversation.

Let’s get started.