Suggest Books to Their Best Reader

The other day I came across this essay in Book Riot about why you should consider recommending books you didn't like yourself. There is also a link to another piece by the same author (in the first paragraph) about recommending books you didn't read as well.

Both are an important read because they get to the heart of one of the foundational tenants of doing RA service, which is that you should always suggest books to their best reader.

Whether I like a book or not matters less than why someone else would like it-- a specific someone else. When I write my reviews for Booklist and Library Journal, they are ALWAYS with that thought in mind. I think about who would enjoy this book the most and I write my review to them. 

I think about what the authors does best, where the appeal lies, and what readers would enjoy that type of read because my reviews are there to help you make purchases and match books with potential readers.

But this is how we all should match books with readers, always. It is also why we would be doomed if we were only held to suggesting books we read and enjoyed ourselves. And, this is also why I say reading about books is more important than reading a book in my 10 rules of Basic RA Service.

The best advice I can give to you about how to match books with their best reader involves using resources-- also one of my 10 rules of Basic RA Service. You can use NoveList (if you have it) to search by appeal factors or even better, use the appeal mixer to find books that have a similar feel without worrying about the plot or if you have read it or even if you read it and didn't enjoy it.

But you can also use Goodreads reviews. When you look at 4, 3, and 2 star reviews, you are seeing people who have opinions about the book without being at either extreme of loving it or hating it. These readers tend to give you a more nuanced picture of the books and why it worked or didn't work with them. I also love using the "shelves" people put a book on (you can access those in the right gutter) because those are natural language appeal factors. These are the terms other readers want to use to remember something about the book. You can click on any of those to find other books which share that tag from readers across the Goodreads community. One of my favorites is "cover love," because people absolutely judge books by their covers. I have multiple posts about that here (that post links to all of them).

Now, I am going to be honest, it is uncomfortable at first when you try to suggest books you haven't read or didn't enjoy for yourself. But, like everything we do, it takes practice (the 10th rule of my basic RA service).

To get more comfortable and have meaningful practice, I always suggest that you take a favorite book-- all time favorite or recent favorite. Look it up on NoveList and Goodreads. See what appeal factors NoveList attaches to it. Play around with clicking a few to see what else pops up. See what lists or articles it appears in. Then go over to Goodreads and look at those 4, 3, and 2 star reviews. Read what people say. Check out the shelves people have tagged the books to.

All of this will help you to get a better sense of who likes the book and why. Some of their reasons may be different from yours. And some of the 2 star people may dislike the book for the exact reasons you loved it. All of this gives you a sense of how these resources work to help you suggest books to their best reader. Since you enjoy the book, you have a frame of reference. 

Repeat this a few times with different books. As you get more comfortable, try a book you didn't enjoy but you know is popular and look it up. Then also try a book you haven't read but again, you know is being checked out and enjoyed by others. 

All of this practice will make you a pro at suggesting books to their best reader whether you have read the book, liked it, or none of the above. And once you are comfortable suggesting books to their best reader regardless of your experience, the entire world of publishing opens up to you, and as a direct result, to your patrons as well.