The Story Report: The European State Of Reading

StoryTel Group recently released their 2026 Story Report. 

Who are the StoryTel Group? From their "About Us" page:

We are a storytelling company. Driven by our purpose – “Leading the future of storytelling, we move the world through stories” – Storytel Group inspires and entertains people around the world by blending innovation with tradition. We bring stories to life across various formats for everyone to discover. Anytime. Anywhere.

The Group consists of two business areas: Streaming and Publishing. Our streaming service is one of the leading subscription-based audio and e-book services, and offers listening and reading of more than 1.8 million titles in 55+ languages to nearly 2.7 million subscribers under the brands Storytel, Mofibo, and Audiobooks.com.Through our publishing operations, we bring high-quality stories from outstanding authors across a wide range of genres via prestigious publishers such as Bokfabriken, Gummerus, Lind & Co, Norstedts Publishing Group, People’s, Storyside and Overamstel. Storytel Group is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

Their 2026 Story Report was commissioned by Storytel and conducted by Trackit Insight, a Stockholm-based independent research and insights agency specialising in human-driven consumer data. The survey was designed to explore the relationship between consumption of stories, audiobook habits and wellbeing across five European markets. Data were collected through online panel interviews in April 2026, with a total of 5,077 respondents across Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland and Bulgaria — approximately 1,000 per market. Respondents were aged 18–79 years and samples were representative of each national population. Panel recruitment and data collection were carried out by Norstat in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Poland, and by JTN Research in Bulgaria.

From the introductory letter by the CEO:

The Quiet Power of the Story

Today’s world can feel overwhelming, with its constant stream of notifications, screens, and the persistent pressure to be productive. At Storytel Group, we have always believed that stories are more than just entertainment – they are a sanctuary.

This year, we conducted research to better understand the impact that stories have on our daily lives.

Our findings are clear: whether you are on a busy commute, doing household chores, or taking a quiet moment before sleep, stories offer a powerful way to restore your wellbeing. From finding peace during a long journey to using audiobooks as a screen-free way to spark a child’s imagination, the pattern is unmistakable: stories help us pause and recharge. Most importantly, our research shows that the more we read or listen – regardless format – the better we feel. Regular reading and listening are consistently linked to higher levels of personal wellbeing.

We don’t just read to escape our busy lives; we read to enrich our lives. This report confirms the meaningful impact of books in all formats as a daily habit.

Bodil Eriksson Torp

CEO Storytel Group

Click through to access the full PDF. It is a fascinating look at 5 European reading markets. 

Yes I know that a majority of my readers are in North America, but it is always good to cross reference reader data here and other places because we are all humans and a lot of the takeaways here are about how reading improves overall wellness.

I also thought this was be a great time to remind you of two recent reports about the state of reading and readers here in America, studies which I wrote about at the end of 2025. 

• 2025 YouGov poll on American Reading Habits
• 2026 Everabd 2026 State of Reading

Now you can add the Story Report to these other two. When you compare all three, notice the overlap because that is where some universal reading truths about reading at this moment in history are revealed.

New Pew Research Report on Reading Habits Is Great, Yes, But Don't Sleep On All of Their Reports

The Pew Research Center is a great resource for information about how American interact with their world on a variety of topics, and their reports are always FREE. From their "About" page:

Pew Research Center is made up of intellectually curious people from across many fields, places and backgrounds. For decades, our expertise, best-in-class methods and commitment to high-quality, fact-based research have made us a trusted resource for leaders and everyday people around the world.  

Our mission

We generate a foundation of facts that enriches public dialogue and supports sound decision-making. We are nonprofit, nonpartisan and nonadvocacy. We value independence, objectivity, accuracy, rigor, humility, transparency and innovation. 

What do we mean by nonprofit? We are funded from charitable dollars. All our resources serve our mission. We do not do any work for hire. 

What do we mean by nonpartisan? We maintain strict impartiality and never align with any political group, candidate or ideology.

What do we mean by nonadvocacy? We study people’s views and behaviors without an agenda. We don’t make policy recommendations or offer solutions. We design our work to explain the public, rather than try to persuade.

Read more about our mission.  

Our research

We study a wide range of topics.

We decide what to study based on questions people are asking, changes happening in the world and gaps where clear information is hard to find. We focus on areas where our expertise, resources and intellectual curiosity can help people better understand the world around them.   

We take our responsibility to inform the public seriously. Every step of our work goes through multiple layers of review to ensure it is high quality and fact based. We share our data and survey questions so that all can see the process and how we arrived at our results.   

Our methods

We ask thousands of people of various ages, ethnicities and backgrounds to share what they think in a survey. We listen to what they say about jobs, politics, religion, education, health and more. We bring those voices together and summarize everything we hear. Before we publish anything, our work goes through several rounds of careful review to make sure it upholds our commitment to high-quality, fact-based research.    

Read more about our methods. 

Click through to read the entire page.

They have frequently turned their inquiries to topics surrounding books and reading, and this month they released one of those reports entitled, "Americans still opt for print books over digital or audio versions; few are in book clubs" at this link.

Please click through and read the entire report because there is A LOT you can learn here, and quite honestly, only you know which parts speak to your local experience, but a few highlights include:

• Print continues to be the only book format used by a majority of Americans.Roughly two-thirds of adults say they have read a physical book in the past 12 months, according to our October survey.
• Much smaller shares say they have read an e-book or listened to an audiobook in the past year.
• While most Americans have read at least one book in the past year, how many they read varies widely. As of October 2025:
• 38% of U.S. adults say they read one to five books in the past year
• 13% read six to 10
• 10% read 11 to 20
• 14% read more than 20
• And 25% of Americans say they read none.
• [Becky addition here: this is sayin 75% of Americans read 1 book!]

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline and the survey methodology.

Please click through and especially look at the analysis and methodology which I linked to immediately above this line. It is at the end of the report. 

And finally, don't sleep on the older reports they have done on books and reading. You can access some of them in the right gutter of the report. But also use the menu bar to explore many of their other reports. Remember, we are serving readers and their likes and interests in general are driven by more than their reading habits. Since the Pew Research Center's reports are driven by intellectual curiosity and then focus on human behavior, there is a lot you can learn from many of their reports*

Don't keep your head stuck in a book. We need to be intellectually curious in order to best serve our patrons, to anticipate things they might be interested in by exploring the world outside of books. Go visit the Pew Research Center to stoke that curiosity, find out what Americans in general are thinking about, discover how they act, and then use that knowledge to think about how you are delivering your RA Service in a way that reflects actual behavior.

*This is also why AI cannot do our job. I wrote about this in more detail here.)

Bookish Conversations Are Hot Even As Leisure Reading Rates Go Down

So I know some of you were like, wow Becky just ignored that report last week about the study that found that over the last 20 years there has been a steady decline in Americans reading for pleasure. (Click here to access it via PW.)

I did not. Rather, instead of posting the report-- which is very interesting and way more nuanced than the click bait headlines-- in a vacuum, I held on to it until I felt like I had something more to add to this conversation.

One of the things the study found was that people who are already readers have been reading more since Covid, which I see reflected in the library as well. Our patrons are taking out more books per person, while the number of new book reading patrons is still growing, just slowly. And many are coming via audiobooks and ebooks, numbers which are reflected in our circulation stats but maybe not in the door counts.

Despite the fact that fewer people are reading for pleasure on a daily basis overall, we have all seen an increase in the conversation around books. Places like BookTok and Bookstagram are popular follows even from those who don't ever read the books mentioned. It is a cool follow.

Also garnering a lot of headlines recently is the new video game Tiny Bookshop .  It is a cozy game where you run a book shop in a small town and suggest books to your customers. 

So it appears talking about books is very popular. It is the taking the time to read them that is not.

What does this mean for us at the library? Well first, the library will continue to be the place where people come as they find time to read, even after long absences. We see this all of the time. Because we have the books and they don't need to pay more than they have already contributed with their taxes to access them, it is a great way for people to try reading again. There is a low barrier to access.

So when people want to try reading, we are there for them. We need to remember that.

Second, we need to be better about joining in the larger community conversations about books. I write about this all the time and give you examples, whether it anticipating trends and having a display there before people ask or encouraging you to bridge the physical virtual divide or just reminding you to start conversations all the time and every where. The more interactive our service to readers is, the more chance people will come back to the library (and reading) and tell a friend.

I am not as pessimistic as others about the study because I see how well we are doing to start conversations around books and reading at the library. Seeing BookTok make old titles bestsellers and knowing that many of those books were ready and waiting on library shelves as book stores were scrambling to get some in stock-- this shows me things are going to be okay.

And now a video game where basically your goal is to be a readers advisor! 

There are enough signs that things are not as bleak as they seem. Let's embrace the places where people outside our bookish world are talking about books and remind them to come visit us to find their next great read. And especially, to invite them to come back to re-discover the joy of a great book.

New Ipsos and NPR Reading Poll

Yesterday, NPR and Ipsos released the results of a new poll of 2,000 Americans which tried to gauge information both about their reading habits and opinions.

There are MANY take aways from this survey's results and I know I will be using them in my talks going forward and I am sure I will write a few posts about what is here, but for today, I want to make sure everyone has all of the information to use as they help their patrons.

Here is the full survey with the results, question by question.

Here is the Ipsos breakdown document

Here is access to the audio and text versions of the 2 minute story from NPR yesterday. This post includes som useful charts as well.

As I said above today is for posting the survey data. We need time to think about using this data as we move forward to help out patrons. I will say though, upon my first few readings, not a lot surprised me here except for that fact that among readers and non readers, 2 in 5 people still don't think audiobooks are reading. This strikes me as odd when viewed alongside the HUGE growth in audiobook listening we have seen in other surveys. 

Please use the links above and think about the results, compare what you see here to your experience working with leisure readers, and use all of it to strive to serve your readers better.

I will be doing the same thing over the next few weeks as well.

Can Reading Make You Happier? via The New Yorker

I am on deadline for Library Journal and while this quarterly deadline is always a lot, I have been much better at managing the work load this year, but it is still overwhelming at times. It can make reading and writing about books feel like a chore during the 2 weeks stretch leading up to the deadline.

That being said, I love that my job pays me to read. But it isn't just me. We all know that there is truth to the fact that reading, especially fiction, leads to increased empathy. But are readers happier than nonreaders? 

I think so. And we see this in our patrons when we see how much joy they get out of a satisfying book. We harness that joy and happiness and use it to drive our work.

Recently, The New Yorker had this article entitled, "Can Reading Make You Happier?" (They allow free views on a limited number of articles per month).

It's a good reminder as to why we give over our professional lives to matching books with readers-- especially adults. It is an important job, one that can make people happier.

An interesting side note to go with this post, I had a meeting this week where talks of a more organized and scientific study of "the culture of reading" in general were discussed. There are people out there trying to quantify these things we see in our work, think we know from anecdotes, and turn them into fact.

But for now, start with The New Yorker article and get it posted to your websites and social media to share with your patrons. But add the important reminder that happiness is waiting on the shelf for them at the library, and that you are there to help them find it.

How Fiction Helps Us Cope With the Real World via Self

When I teach Readers' Advisory in general and genres that appeal directly to the emotions, specifically [Horror, Romance, Gentle Reads, and Relationship Fiction], I spend a great deal of time talking about how important reading fiction is to us as humans.

Reading stories of fictional worlds, allows us a safe way to escape our day to day existence while also exploring new places, people, and situations. And because of the public libraries and the work we do to help match readers with the right book for them at that moment in their lives, it is an affordable way to escape.

Matching books with readers based on the feel of the book, not the plot, is at its essence what RA is. It is different from "bibliotherapy" however. We, as public library workers, are not trained to provide actual psychological help to our readers, many of who we barely know. But, we can help them find the right book, author, or even genre, to explore as a way to help themselves in the way they need at that moment. 

We  do this by being the middle person, a match maker, there  to open up the universe of options for them. To navigate the mass of titles and help them narrow down a choice, so they can find what they re looking for-- be it something for just a fun, quick, escape, something deeper, or anything in between.

Today, I want to share an essay by Jennifer Chen, from Self earlier this month entitled, "I Highly Recommend Romance Novels If You're Really Going Through It Right Now," where Chen talked personally about how Romance novels "...saved me when self-help couldn't."

This is a great resource for you, not only to look at the broader RA issues I am talking about, but also to see how a specific genre can provide a much needed real world connection.

If you are anyone who has ever helped any reader-- which should be all of you or why do you read this blog-- this reader reaction to finding the right books for them is a wonderful resource to ward understanding WHY we do this work and WHAT "success" looks like from a reader perspective.

Reading Resolutions Part 2: Becky's 2021 Resolutions

Yesterday I began the process of posting my 2020 reading resolutions by first looking back and assessing how I did on my 2019 resolutions. You can read that post here.

Today, using what I learned by assessing how last year went, and knowing what things I have planned for the coming year, I present my 2020 Resolutions-- the ones I will hold myself to for assessment a year from now.

Again, please remember, I post these both so that I am forced to hold myself to them [or not as the case may be] but also because I am a big proponent of the "lead by example" leadership style. If I am advocating for you to make resolutions and then go back and assess how you did before making the next year's resolutions, I also have to do it myself.

However, that being said, my resolutions are very specific to me. I do not expect nor encourage you to take mine as your own. Please use the process as the example and then try to make some for yourself. Tomorrow I will have another librarian who agreed to share hers too. 

2021 Resolution: I will look for ways to drive change when it comes to EDI. Last year it was about being louder,  and getting myself into more venues to discuss equity, diversity, and inclusion to more physical people. My focus was on helping well-meaning white people separate being racist from their part in systemic racism. I think with the help of the larger Black Lives Matter movement, I was able to be a small part of this reckoning for many people. Understanding that you don’t have to be racist to be part of the structure that upholds racism has always been the point of my training, but I think more people were ready to listen to the message this year. But now I need to pivot. As I mentioned yesterday here, I began to take personal action on the EDI front from joining committees to starting a diversity scholarship. However, it is not enough to simply keep doing what I have been doing. Systemic change is a marathon, and it requires constantly pushing the boundaries in order for noticeable change to happen. We are up against over 400 years of history. So I will actively be a force to drive change this year. I already know I will be part of some serious EDI work through my local library [as a Trustee], and I am determined to make sure that the RAILS EDI committee gets some action steps going very soon, but in terms of my own training programs, I need to step it up a bit. Most of my current training is about revealing to library workers that systemic racism is a thing and they have to actively work against it, but I need to create a second level training. I think this can happen after the new book is completely in the publishers hands [Feb/March]. I also want some time to talk with others, especially those from marginalized communities about where my efforts are best focused.

2021 Resolution: I need to keep embracing horror while actively inserting graphic novels, nonfiction, and stories [non horror] back into my leisure reading life. This comes out of my assessment from 2020. I did great reading Middle Grade because I made it a resolution. But in the strained leisure reading life of 2020 these other loves of mine just disappeared. Again, I discussed why yesterday, but just because I have a reason doesn’t mean I am off the hook. I know reading more of these titles will improve my personal and work life, so I am making it a priority right now. Once the details of my manuscript submissions for the new book are done, I am sure I will have more brain space for non-horror reading and listening too, and I will make these reading areas a top priority. That being said, I need to also continue to find the healthy balance of embracing of horror as my main genre even when I am not actively writing a book about the genre. 2021 will be the year to see if my ability to stop apologizing for reading mostly horror, will actually stick. I realize all of you expect mostly horror from me; but I still felt guilty every year but this last one [2020] that this was the case.

2021 Resolution: I will work on increasing connections and interactivity with my general RA training programs. In 2020 I did many more webinars than interactive training programs due to the pandemic. Libraries also wanted more “train the trainer” programs, which while super effective in the short term, are not as helpful in the long term because many of the the trainers I trained have not had effective ways to get more staff involved and trained when everyone was socially distant. I was still able to provide a handful of libraries with an experience similar to in-person, but most of those were for small groups- less than 25— so we could all be on Zoom together on one screen. Only 1 library was able to turn my planned, hands-on, full library in-service day into a virtual event and that was because the person running It on the library’s end is exceptional and a friend. We were able to spend time working it all out together and we then presented on how we did it at a library conference. Neither the webinar only model, nor the elaborate virtual recreation of a full library, in person staff day are sustainable for another year. And with closures and limits in services still happening off and on at libraries, I cannot stand by and do nothing either. 2020 exposed the problem I have been warning of for the last 5 years— libraries tried to back away from being about books and now, that’s what people need and our staff’s are not ready to provide the level of RA service they need to be able to provide. So I am going to try to identify a few clients with whom I can work to figure this all out. Even if things go back to “normal” this Fall, libraries are not going to be able to close for staff days anytime soon; tax players won’t stand for it. I can make a living doing things virtual, but the content and learning is much better when the programs are for the entire staff and truly interactive. I care more about the experience and learning. Thankfully I have some ideas and two upcoming programs where I can try a few things out. 

2021 Resolution: I am going to offer more training programs that work to help close the huge communication gap between Administration/Trustees and Library Staff. As I mentioned yesterday, 2020 exposure a huge disconnect between administration/trustees and the boots on the ground staff. Operation in the midst of a pandemic was the catalyst but it is a gap that has been widening over the years. Many libraries have a toxic work environment, I am starting to think it is the norm quite honestly. I worked in one of those toxic environments so I understand it all too well. I have some ideas on how to improve communication between both sides, which I think is the biggest problem. Too often, I hear from staff that they cannot talk to anyone above them except for their immediate supervisors, for example. I also know of libraries where Trustees are going directly to library staff to demand information behind administrators’ backs. I even heard of one extreme example in the Northern US where the Director washed their hands of helping out in the pandemic by moving to Canada and being “unavailable” to go to work. None of this is good. And It is happening all over the country. I have begun to address this issue by proposing a program at a library conference for general staff about what they need to know about their Board of Trustees and how they can interact with them. Most libraries with toxic work environments would be greatly improved by better, honest communication between the very top and the bottom. I am also in the process of working on a larger program to figure out how to council both the top and the bottom of the organizational chart on how they can work together better. I am working with another library professional who is also a Trustee and I hope to expand to include some Directors and Clerical Staff. 2020 was the year library workers got vocal and went public with the details about the toxic work environments we have all been dealing with behind the scenes, and I am glad that it is no longer a secret, but the next step is to act. I am well positioned as a library professional and a Trustee to begin acting. 

So those are my plans for 2021. Again, they are all informed by my assessment of my 2020 resolutions.  I know I won’t be perfect with these 4 goals, but by laying them out I have an outline of where to begin, and the beginning is the best place to start.

Please let me know if you want to share your 2021 Resolutions and/or your Assessment of your 2020 Goals. It is a very tame way to hold yourself accountable and helps others. Click here for my contact info.

Book Riot Looks At Readers vs Non-Readers And Life Satisfaction

Today I want to give a shoutout to an article Kelly Jensen did for Book Riot earlier this month. From the article itself:

READERS ARE MORE SATISFIED WITH THEIR LIVES THAN NONREADERS, NEW STUDY SUGGESTS

KELLY JENSEN 

11-06-19 

"Studies have shown that readers are more empathetic and that it can improve cognitive function. A new study by SuperSummary, an online resource that provides in-depth study guides, suggests reading has yet another benefit: self-identified readers are more satisfied with their lives than those who don’t identify as readers."

Jensen took the data from this survey and really dug into it, analyzing why the results came out the way they did. I really appreciated the time she took to look at possible causes and effects rather than just spit back out the data at us.

For example, she really looks at the financial side of being a reader. Readers are not inherently happier and healthier because they read, rather readers tend to be more financially stable and thus have an easier time getting access to better food. Again from her article:

"The idea that readers have better eating habits because they hold themselves in higher esteem than nonreaders fails to account for the fact that eating healthy is socially constructed and a privilege to those with time and resources."

This is just one example of what Jensen is bringing to the table. She provides insight into many of the outcomes reported by SuperSummary.

Thank you Jensen for taking the time to really dig into this study and think about it from all angles, not just the reader vs nonreader obvious point of view. We need more thoughtful, holistic looks at the massive amounts of data we currently find at our fingertips. It takes time and effort, but, as I found with Jensen's article, it is totally worth it.

There are a lot of implications for our work with readers-- at all age levels-- here. Please take some time to click through and read the entire piece. There is a zero percent chance that you won't find something to help you help your patrons, and help them immediately.

Discussing Reading Slumps Honestly via Bellwether Friends

Recently I have been talking to a few library folks about their anxiety surrounding their own personal reading slumps. I have passed on my "Handling TBR Anxiety" post to them, and while they have told me it is helpful, it isn't exactly right for the "slump" problem.

But to the rescue come three awesome library people who were apparently reading my mind [which actually doesn't surprise me because I know them IRL too]. Anna and Alene, who host the awesome Bellwether Friends podcast [which I love because it is a podcast where librarianship- mostly public and with an RA focus- overlaps with popular culture] interviewed Kelly Jensen from Book Riot to discuss her article "7 Tips for Reading With Mental Health Challenges."

It was Episode 109 and you can listen and see all of the show notes [with links] here.

What I enjoyed about this podcast was how openly all three participants talked about their personal reading slumps, how they have changed over time, why we have them, how we handle the anxiety surrounding these slumps when it is supposed to be our job to read, and how we can "break out" of them.

Please listen, whether you are in a current reading slump, you have even been in one, or even if you can relate to anxiety around how much you read. We all deal with this. Sometimes it is worse than others. I also especially appreciated Alene's honesty about how much the number of books she reads in a year has gone down but how she manages to not let it to effect her job as a readers' advisor. And I can tell you 100% and from personal experience that she is still one of the best at RA. I know her story will help many of you. Please listen.

The podcast episode, Kelly's article, and my post all taken together can help a lot of you feel better about your reading, both personally and professionally.

Popular Reading Collections in Academic Libraries

I have been interested in popular reading collections in academic library collections for years. Click here to pull up my posts on the topic including slides I created for a 2016 ILA Annual presentation where I talk about all of the reason WHY it makes sense for every academic library. [Major reason: your patrons, students, staff and faculty like to read for fun too, maybe even more than the average library user].

The recent issue of RUSQ has a feature article on the topic. It's a real life, researched, academic article and not just me telling you why my opinion is right. But spoiler alert, I was right.

Although RUSQ allows reproduction of their articles in entirety for educational purposes, I would rather  link to the article and simply repost the title, author info, and summary below. It is a bit longer than the material I usually post, but there is much here that we all can learn about popular reading collections, public, school, academic, or special libraries.

Again, click here to read the full article.

Don’t Call It a Comeback

Popular Reading Collections in Academic Libraries

Elizabeth Brookbank, Anne-Marie Davis, and Lydia Harlan

Elizabeth Brookbank (brookbanke@ mail.wou.edu) is Instruction Librarian, Hamersly Library, Western Oregon University. Anne-Marie Davis (adavey@uw.edu) is Collection Development Coordinator, Odegaard Undergraduate Library, University of Washington. Lydia Harlan (lharlan@ uoregon.edu) is Acquisitions Budget and Receiving Coordinator, Knight Library, University of Oregon.

Despite the persisting notion that recreational reading does not have a place in the academic mission of college and university libraries, these libraries have a long history of providing pleasure reading for their patrons. During the latter half of the twentieth century, the idea of academic libraries meeting the recreational reading needs of students seems to have fallen out of favor, but a literature review of that time period shows that the collections them- selves still existed. Discussion of—and jus- tifications for—these collections, however, has enjoyed a resurgence in the library literature over the past decade. Given this renewed interest, this study seeks to assess just how common these collections are in US academic libraries today, and whether or not they are, in fact, enjoying a come- back from previous decades. This study surveyed the thirty-nine academic libraries that make up the Orbis Cascade Alliance in the Pacific Northwest, a diverse group of libraries in terms of size, type, budget, and student populations. The results of the survey show that a majority of librar- ies have a recreational collection and that these collections are valued by patrons and librarians alike. Recommendations are made for shifting the perspective on popular reading collections and their place in academic libraries, as well as for how to study them in the future.

Reference & User Services Quarterly, vol. 58, no. 1, pp. 28–39
© 2018 American Library Association. All rights reserved.
Permission granted to reproduce for nonprofit, educational use.

RA for All Virtual Roadshow: Trends for RAILS

This morning I have a brand new 90 minute program for my local library system:

What’s To Come in 2018?: Assessing and Staying On Top of Adult Leisure Reading and Collection Development Trends 

For library workers who work assist leisure readers, whether it is from the front desk, the reference desk, or as you roam the stacks, staying on top of the latest trends is imperative. Our patrons expect us to know what’s hot before they do. They expect us to have the items ready and waiting for them as soon as they request them. And with all of the other job duties we have to worry about, sometimes we are not a responsive to the most current trends as we could be. But assessing trends in leisure reading and collection development is an essential job duty, and it is not nearly as difficult as you may think. Join noted Readers’ Advisory expert Becky Spratford for a webinar that will be fun and useful. She will walk you through the current trends in adult leisure collections and teach you the tips and tricks you can use to stay in the know all year long. Before you know it, your library will be trending in your community.

The slides are filled with trends, how to respond to them, and tons of links. Most of the links are to content that has appeared here on the blog.

I had a lot of fun putting this one together. I know there are a lot of registrants too, so we will have a nice crowd.

Click here for the slides both if you are attending and if you are not. I have included my notes too, so there is a lot of content there even if you can’t attend.

[Ed note: updated 1/24 with this link to watch the video]

Click here to access slides

Don’t Be Judgmental About What People Like to Read-- The NYT Book Review Fails Again

I would like to start this post by saying I hate the fact that I have been calling the NYT Book Review out for their failures recently. Specifically, I was [and still am] very angry about the Book Match column [it’s still the pinned tweet at the top of my Twitter timeline], but there is a much more detailed discussion of the larger problems here.

I am a life long home delivery subscriber of the paper. I walked a mile, literally [round trip], every day in college to get my reserved copy at A.J Hastings. I would seriously think twice before moving somewhere that home delivery of this paper was not an option.

But despite this, and despite some positive changes the NYT Book coverage has made over the last few years, all I want to do after this weekend’s debacle with this Romance column“A Roundup of the Seasonal Romance Novels” by Robert Gottlieb is shake my fists in anger. 

Why are people still making fun of Romance books? Who cares if you like them or not? Who care if you think they are “good Literature” or not? If you don’t like them, don’t read them and most certainly, do not write a column highlighting the genre for the biggest book coverage media outlet in the land and inject it with your judgey-mcjudgers attitude. This does not make you seem smart. This does not make your seem Literary. This makes you look stupid, petty, and mean.

There are so many things wrong with this column. The first of which is that it is supposed to highlight the best of the genre right now and all it does is disparage the genre. I am not going to go through and point every problem out because Ron Hogan already did an excellent job at that in his piece, “All the Dumb Things You Can Say About Romance Novels, In One Convenient Place.” I especially like this statement which condemns the author [a respected editor of the likes of Toni Morrison and Doris Lessing]:

Now, the New York Times may not be the only place an 86-year-old white man get away with saying a black woman’s characters don’t seem very black to him without anybody in the editorial chain chiming in about whether this literally gratuitous swipe is really necessary to the overarching theme of the essay. But it’s a place where this sort of thing is not uncommon. 

A couple things I noticed on  my first reading of this column [yes, I have read it more than once] were:

1. Gottlieb says there are only two categories of romance right now-- Regency or Contemporary. WHAT?!?! Okay, that’s just straight out wrong and any decent editor would have questioned this. Heck, any librarian would have immediately called foul by pulling out all of the paranormal and Amish romances waiting to be shelved at this very second. Here is the Romance Writers of America’s most recent list of all of the subgenres, and please note, Historical is a subgenre under which Regency falls, but Regency is by no means the only historical period covered in Romance novels.
2. His anger about Romances always and forever ending with the HEA and marriage is actually even more troubling. THAT IS THE RULE OF THE GENRE. If it doesn’t end that way, it isn’t a romance.  Again, I defer to the experts at RWA with their definition of the Romance Genre which states that a Romance must have, "An Emotionally Satisfying and Optimistic Ending: In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love." What is wrong with you Gottlieb? Next you are going to tell us how annoying it that Fantasy relies on the “crutch” of magic to tell a story. Oh, I’m sorry, the editors wouldn’t let that in because men write Fantasy so it is a higher genre. Women writers and women readers aren’t worth as much, so we can make fun of the fact that their genre has rules and tropes. 

Again, there is much, much more here, but Hogan does an excellent job of breaking it down, so read him too. And, since he is a man standing up for the genre and its readers, people might actually listen.

Look, I am not surprised that a Literary Fiction editor wrote condescendingly about Romance. I am not naive. But I am angry that the editors at the NYT Book Review let this drivel be published the way it was written.

Finally please know that I am not a Romance expert, or even a fan, but I have been on the record as saying that Romance readers are among my favorite to help. They love their books and they can tell you why. They know what they are looking for and can discuss their personal appeal preferences. Most importantly, romance readers have taught me how to be a better RA librarian. I have learned how to listen to what readers are asking for and then apply that to the resources to identify titles for them even when I am not a reader of that type of book myself. Romance readers give us feedback. They cheer when we get a suggestion right and lay into us when we are wrong [nicely]. Also, they are the best book talkers around. You want to learn to book talk better, ask a romance reader to tell you about their recent favorite. I promise you will learn something.

I love Romance because the fans love it. They energize me to find them another wonderful read.

Our first rule of RA Service, the fact that we are all guided by as we start each day helping readers, is Betty Rosenberg's, “Never apologize for your reading tastes.” Now I get that book reviews are supposed to judge a book’s merit. Again, I am not naive, I am paid reviewer of genre titles. I understand my charge. I currently love Hematophages by Stephen Kozeniewksi. It is an awesome horror novel. But is it the best book I have ever read? Of course not. But that wasn’t my charge to compare it to ALL books. I was reviewing it’s merits as a horror novel, and as such, it is wonderful!

When others in the book world decide to be judgmental about an entire genre of books in principle, rather than judging each book on its merit based on the genre’s rules and tropes-- that is wrong. It is mean. It is detrimental to all genre reviews and reviewers because it is unprofessional.

And, most importantly,  it doesn’t help any readers find their next good read. And NYT Book Review, I ask you, why else would you have a Romance column unless you wanted to help Romance readers? Seriously, why did you print this because I cannot figure out why except that you are unprofessional and mean-- both things I don’t think you are or are trying to be.

There are many people waiting for an explanation and an apology.

Understanding the Complex Appeal of "Girl” Thrillers

Look, I know you are all sick of books being called the next Gone Girl or the next Girl on the Train, and we could all use a break from the word “girl" in the title, but I also want to caution you all to not get so caught up in being sick of this trend that you lose sight of the fact that it is still a trend and patrons still absolutely love these books.

Seriously, it is still a huge trend, but often we are too busy poo-pooing the trend still being here that we forget to keep the patron’s experience in mind. There are reasons beyond the word “girl” appearing in the title that keep bringing people back to these titles again and again. We have to keep asking ourselves that question-- Why do readers continue to love these stories?

The reasons of course, differ for each reader, but when a trend stays around this long [it’s been 5 years and 3 months since Gone Girl first came out], there are still people coming to it with fresh eyes all of the time.  We need to stop being “too cool for school” for a few moments and remember that if this is what readers want, we need to help them find more they will enjoy, and we need to do it without rolling our eyes.

Thanks to my friend and colleague, Stephen Sposato, I read this article last week in Bustle entitled, “Why Do We Love To Read “Girl” Thrillers So Much? Experts Day It’s About More Than Suspense.”

The article is excellent and well researched. Many librarians were consulted to try to figure out why these books have such staying power. Conclusions such as the way the story is told and how these books serve as a bell ringer of the scary times we live in, were only a couple among many insightful appeal assessments. The article also talks at length about how not new this trend is.

Read it now. I promise it is worth the 10 minutes it will take you. Not only will it allow you to look at a trend you are sick of with fresh eyes so that you regain that enthusiasm to help a reader looking for more of these books, but also I bet many of you will be inspired to run out and create fresh readalike lists and displays featuring the “Girl” books that just last week you thought, “If I never see one of these books again it will be too soon.”

I hope you also take this one trend example of how important it is for us to hold back our judgement when it comes to our patrons. We may be sick of a trend because we see it from start to finish, but patrons come to us with a completely different background and context. They are only looking for a good book, a good story, one featuring the things they like. They don’t need our judgment and baggage.

The entire “Girl” trend, its staying power, and our attitude about it should be a warning. Trends like this keep us in business people. No one can afford to buy all of these books, but yet, everyone can’t stop reading them. Seems like a sweet spot which we fit into perfectly. Let’s embrace our place in the giant “Girl” machine.

Holiday Weekend Reading Suggestions Driven By You and You Alone

Many people will be telling you what you SHOULD read this holiday weekend, but none of those lists or people recommending the titles really care about what you WANT to read.

So today, as we go into the final weekend of summer, I pass on to you one of my favorite lists- “28 Books You Should Read If You Want To.”

[This is from The Millions and I always have a link to it on my 10 Rules of Basic RA page- it’s in RULE 1.]

Why do I like it so much?

Because it is a list of ideas on where to find a reading suggestion. While the list has general directions, it has no specific titles. It gives you a starting off point and allows you to pick what you want to read. The whole point is that is has you think about what to read next from a new angle, one that allows you to be the center of the recommendation process.

Click through to see what I mean.

I use this list all of the time to help hard to assist patrons and myself [when I am in a rut]. I ask one of the 28 questions and I have NEVER not had success, even with the most challenging of patrons. I sometimes needed to use a handful of the questions here, but never have I used up all 28 in one RA transaction.

Have a great holiday weekend no matter what you may be reading. I’ll be back on Tuesday.

Fostering a Love of Reading Through School Libraries- Featuring A New Friend and Resource for You

Today is my 2x a month volunteer afternoon at the local elementary school library. Since this is also one of my last times volunteering while I have a child in this school I thought I would reflect back upon what I have learned as an adult librarian working in a school library for 10 [!] years before I introduce you to a new friend and inspirational school librarian.

Ten years ago, my first child entered Kindergarten and I was looking for ways I could volunteer at the school, but I didn't want to be a room mom or organize fundraisers. What I was looking for was an opportunity to provide help to the school in a way that best utilized my skill sets. What I found was that the LRC actively solicits parent volunteers. I started helping out and never looked back.

When I first got there I was not sure how much I could actually help beyond understanding how the books were shelved, keeping an eye out for messy and out of order shelves, and occasionally giving a book suggestion to the kids-- I was not as well versed in kid lit at that time.

Well flash forward ten years later and not only have I been able to contribute more, the LRC Director and her staff have made great, innovative changes without sacrificing their commitment to putting books in the kids' hands.

Yes we now have a green screen room and the kids all learn how to use a variety of computer programs through the LRC, but I have also been a part of projects to re-catalog entire sections of the library- making local changes to the standard Dewey Classifications to fit how the kids actually use the collection. I have also spent a lot of time working on cataloging. I take the standard preloaded records and clean them up. This is a help to the LRC Director because it is a professional job that needs a trained hand. By doing it for her, she is freed up to work with students and plan longer terms projects while still getting the new books on the shelf in a timely fashion for the hordes of hungry readers she has been cultivating.

[I have highlighted the work of this school library in this program. You can click through for some more examples.]

For me, professionally, working with the kids and their books has allowed me to become well versed in kid lit and, more importantly, I am now a pro at the RA conversation with kids. Getting a kids to talk about why they love a book is different than working with adults. In many ways it is harder, and yet, once you get them going, they can't stop sharing what they love.

The teachers seek me out for some of the harder to help children, the ones who need a little more one on one attention to find that perfect book- especially the reluctant readers and the older kids who need a lower reading level with high interest. With me helping those kids and giving them the more intensive attention, the LRC Director is free to work with everyone else.

I love it so much, even on those crazy weeks when I really should stay home and get some of my work done. Unless I am out of town, I always go. It recharges me and is helping my son's school community. And over the years, the LRC Director has become a colleague and friend. I have watched her grow, get her Master's Degree, and become a sought after presenter herself.

My son will be leaving for Junior High very soon, but I will be back at the elementary school next year. There are very strict rules about who can volunteer in schools and normally if you do not have an enrolled child, you cannot. Except....if you are a professional in the community volunteering your professional skills in the school setting. Bingo! 

As a result of my work with my school library, I have become much more cognizant of the great work being done, often alone and in a vacuum, by our school librarians all over the country. And last week, at StokerCon I met Kelly Powers, a school librarian in Southern, CA. 

Kelly works at a school where the average reading level that is below grade level. She works very hard to engage and encourage her students. Just because they are struggling does not mean they can;t fall in love with reading. In fact, Kelly is having great success because she works so hard to find them the right books, books that will keep them reading and as a result she is helping them to improve their literacy skills.  Kelly is also an author, so she understands stories from that perspective too.

Kelly gets the power of giving kids a great read, helping them to find books they enjoy for fun, and she writes about it on her blog The Write Time. Kelly writes persuasively and elegantly about why books and reading matter. Here is just a sampling of some of my favorite posts by her:

• Graphic Novels As Gateway Books
• The Male Reader
• 11 Tips For Encouraging A Young Reader

No matter the age of reader you help, from babies to senior citizens, Kelly's posts will help you to help your readers better. I would like to especially note The Male Reader. Everyone who reads this blog, needs to read that post.

I believe strongly in learning by stepping outside of your comfort zone and looking at things from a different perspective. This is how we grow as library workers and people. Therefore, I am going to have Kelly check in from time to time with more insight.

But right now, I am off to my school library to help get more books into those kids' hands- whether its by suggesting a specific kid a title, cataloging new materials, or helping to reimagine how we shelve the books, all of it helps to foster a love of both books and libraries in these kids-- our future funders and voters for libraries!

Announcing Library Journal Day of Dialog Schedule

During BEA, Library Journal always sponsors 1 day just for Librarians.  This year it is on Wednesday, May 11th from 9am-6pm.  You can click here for all of the details and pricing. I already have a ticket and there is still space if you are interested. It is a great deal and includes breakfast and lunch.

This is an event that is 100% focused on improving our service to leisure readers.

Today, they released the finalized schedule. For those of you on the fence, this may help.

Here is the link to the schedule which I have also copied below. I hope to see many of you there.  And if you cannot make it, I will be among those who will be live tweeting, so you can follow on Twitter or via the widget on the side of this blog for those of you who are not on Twitter. [There is a sizable group I know who use this scroll. You will not be left in the dark.]

Schedule

8:00–8:45 am | Registration & Breakfast

8:45–10:00 am | Editors Picks

• Tim Duggan, VP, Publisher, Tim Duggan Books: Crown, Penguin Random House
• Amy Einhorn, Senior VP, Publisher, Amy Einhorn Books: Flatiron Books, Macmillan
• Lara Heimert, VP, Publisher, Basic Books, Perseus Books Group
• Sarah McGrath, VP, Editor in Chief, Riverhead, Penguin Random House
• Alane Salierno Mason, VP, Executive Editor, W.W. Norton

10:00–10:15 am | Break

10:15–11:00 am | Big Authors Panel I

• Robert Olen Butler, Perfume River (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• Jonathan Safran Foer, Here I Am (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Macmillan)
• Jay McInerney, Bright, Precious Things (Knopf, Penguin Random House)

11:00–11:15 am | Break

11:15–12:00 pm | Book Trip

• Katarina Bivald, The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, LibraryReads Picks, Sourcebooks Landmark
• Shana Drehs, Editorial Director, Sourcebooks Landmark
• Heather Moore, Senior Publicity Manager, Sourcebooks
• Valerie Pierce, Marketing Manager, Sourcebooks

12:00–12:45 pm | Tell Me a Story: Putting Together an Audiobook

• Grimm’s Fairytales, Penguin Random House Audio
• Scott Brick, Dion Graham, Kate Rudd, Simon Vance, Audie Award–winning narrators
• Dan Zitt, VP, Content Production, Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group

12:45–1:30 pm | Lunch

1:30–2:30 pm | The Art of Nonfiction

• Luvvie Ajayi, I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual (Holt Paperbacks, Macmillan)
• Eugenia Cheng, How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics(Basic Books: Perseus Books Group)
• Joshua Foer & Dylan Thuras, Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders (Workman)
• Gary Younge, Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives (Nation Books, Perseus Books Group)

2:30–2:45 pm | Break

2:45–3:45 pm | Big Authors Panel II

• Emma Cline, The Girls (Random, Penguin Random House)
• Justin Cronin, The City of Mirrors (Passage, Bk. 3) (Ballantine, Penguin Random House)
• Nicole Dennis-Benn, Here Comes the Sun (Liveright, W.W. Norton)
• Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad (Doubleday, Penguin Random House)

3:45–4:00 pm | Break

4:00–5:00 pm | Big Authors Panel III

• Sonali Dev, A Change of Heart (Kensington Publishing Corp.)
• Gayle Forman, Leave Me (Algonquin Books, Workman)
• Mary Carter, Home with My Sisters/Carlene O’Connor, Murder in an Irish Village (Kensington Publishing Corp.)
• Susan Elizabeth Phillips, First Star I See Tonight (Chicago Stars) (Morrow, HarperCollins)
• Jill Shalvis, The Trouble with Mistletoe: A Heartbreaker Bay Novel (Avon, HarperCollins)

5:00–6:00 pm | Reception and Author Signings