Making Reading Suggestions Across the Popular Culture Landscape

I am always getting asked to recommend books for someone who likes a specific movie or TV show. I also train my students to find out what kinds of stories readers are looking for by asking about all of their popular culture tastes. This gives the RA a better picture of exactly what the patron is looking for in general, and, in the end, helps you to help them better.

To this end, the folks at the book section of Time Out Chicago not only published their 2009 best list, they also published this list matching books to their pop culture counterparts.  My favorite category: "Best Book for  Someone Who Likes the Idea of the Oprah Book Club, But Thinks They're Too Cool." I will use this one often.

Check it out for yourself.  Also, in general, Time Out's book coverage is worth floowing.  They have a book blog with an RSS feed which you can access here.