Best Books of the Century Discussion As a Resource For More Than The List Itself

Last week the New York Times ran their "Best Books of the 21st Century." Not only was there a list from 100 down to 1-- which in and of itself will drive backlist interest in books I know you have on your shelves-- but also, I enjoyed seeing the ballots of authors who they asked to vote. You can access that page here. [I have a subscription but I think if you do the free subscription you can see this featured coverage.]

Those authors putting their favorite books of the century on display for all to see here is the perfect example of one of my favorite resources in general, in fact, I love it so much that it is in my list of 5 Resources You Cannot Live Without which is always on my Ten Rules of Basic RA Service page. That resource is: Author Recs of Other Authors. I also included it in Chapter 15 of my book:

Author Recommendations of Other Authors: The  least “professional” of my general RA resources, is also one of the most effective, pointing a patron to the authors and titles that their own favorite authors love. Patrons find great joy reading these books, even those in a genre outside their normal comfort zone. Stephen King is the perfect example of this phenomenon. King, the best known horror novelist in the world, is famous for turning previously unknown books into bestsellers just by mentioning his affection for said book. But where do you find this information? A few places, including,  the author’s Twitter feed, front or back covers of a book, or Fantastic Fiction where at the bottom of each author record there is a section which gathers an author’s “recommendations.” As horror authors get more popular themselves, they are well known for paying it forward to others, so you can regularly find today’s most popular horror authors-Victor LaValle, Carmen Maria Machado, Paul Tremblay, and Stephen Graham Jones- suggesting the next generation of great writers to their legions of fans. Why not listen to the authors your patrons already love and pass on their favorites with a comment on how you found the suggestion? When it works, and it does more often than it does not, you look like a genius. Often, the book is better received by the patron than those carefully crafted suggestions you agonized over.

That statement above was very prescient because Tremblay and Jones are included the NYT Best Books of the Century Coverage. But there are many authors across the spectrum of literature and even one of the best audio book narrators of all time-- Dion Graham. [This last inclusion made me very happy because this is a man who has literally read many of these books to millions of readers. His thoughts are useful in a whole different way both because some readers enjoy certain narrators so much, they will listen to any book that person readers AND because he has a unique perspective on the best books of the last century.]

So now we have the list itself of the Top 100 Books of the Century and the Author ballots, both of which are a great treasure trove of resources to help readers, but I also want to point you to the fact that for each book on the list, the NYT staff also included three readalike titles for each book on the list after the entry on that book as well as creating an NPR Books We Love style of questionnaire to help you match a book with a reader that uses more natural language searching. Even the title of the search engine uses natural language-- "That's a Dizzying List! Help Me Chose a Book."

All of this content, is a great resource to do our work as it gives us many entry points to helping readers find the right book for them. People will have seen or heard about the 100 Best Books of the Century and will come in wanting to talk about it. Yes, this is true. And yes, we can use these resources to find them the right book for them as a reader.

BUT, this is all RA 101; the basics; the very minimum of how we can help readers. What I want you to see is the next step-- that every single one of these things that I have pointed out above are an example of conversation starters. All of these lists, the ballots from other authors, the helping you find a book, and more... all of it is there to create a conversation around books. And this-- having conversations about books and reading, not the transaction of matching a book with a reader-- should always be our goal in the public library. This entire "literary event" works to sell papers and drive clicks and digital subscriptions precisely because it is trying to be interactive. They are trying to draw people into a conversation while also asking them to participate: click the titles you have read, see the readalikes for more, see what your favorite authors included on their lists, chime in and respond in a public forum where you can see other's thoughts as well.

Clearly it is working because LitHub has already responded back with a list of the books that the NYT missed-- moving the conversation to another, unaffiliated platform where books and reading are discussed regularly. 

This is how conversations work, someone begins and the dialog goes back and forth, in this case, across the entire book atmosphere.* People listen and respond, with each response adding something new.

It is the drum I have been beating the loudest all year-- to be interactive with your RA Service. And my advice on where and how to begin is with Conversation Starters is explained here.

People often resist when I try to get them to involve their patrons in their service encouraging them to ask questions and use the answers to make new displays and lists, but I cannot stress enough how much better it is for everyone when we ask our patrons to share their thoughts on the books they like (and dislike). Not only do we hear their feedback but we show them that we do want to know. 

The most common "problem" people share with me about their RA Service is that they cannot get anyone to come up and ask them for help selecting their next read. And my response always is-- that is because they don't even know you want to help them. Model the behavior you want to see and people will begin to respond. So, instead of simply having signs or online posts that say you are there to help with their leisure reading needs, instead, show them you want to include them in your service to readers by asking them questions first.

How do you do that? Well again, this handout I have provided is a great way to start. But even better-- look at the NYT for inspiration. They are modeling a conversation. They picked a question-- What are the best books of the century?-- and have turned it into a RA conversation bonanza.

And great news for us, we don't have to reinvent the wheel. Our job is to use resources to help patrons, and this resource is an interactive conversation starter all teed up for us; it is ready to use. Put the books on display, make smaller displays for some of the authors who have their ballots on this page, put all of these online and in the building (bridging the physical virtual divide), and then this, the final but most important step, find ways to ask your patrons to chime in-- in person and online.

You can ride this for months of conversation with your patrons-- and if you offer digital subscriptions to the NYT even better--  you will also drive access there, meaning your in person staff and your databases are actively helping patrons.

But again, most importantly, use this example to inspire you to make all of your RA Services more interactive. If you need help, good news, this is what I do-- help you to better serve your readers. Contact me about working with your library or system.

*Book Atmosphere is a term I borrow from Robin Bradford. I always cite her when I use it.