NPR Book Concierge 2020

One of my favorite resources each year is the NPR Book Concierge. It came out yesterday but I was busy presenting so I saved it for today!

The basics of the Book Concierge is that the NPR staff pick 383 books that are "best" by a variety of metrics and turns them into an app that allows you to mix and match based off of natural language as well as genre. 

Here is an example of some of the categories you can use to filter out a list of books that are what you are looking for:

I have included pictures of the top navigation banner which gives you access to all of the years the Book Concierge has been around and the first part of the side navigation bar. Please click through to actually navigate it all. But as it says, there are over 2,500 best option here, options that can be narrowed down by enough categories to satisfy any reader, not matter how picky. And you can easily overlay these filters so that you can find a book "for art lovers," about "identity and culture," that is good for book clubs. Yes there is an option that fits all of those categories.

This is my favorite best list because of that ease of use combined with the backlist potential. Remember, a book is still "best" even if it didn't come out this year. Stop worrying about which year it was best. Readers don't care as much as we think, they just want to know someone thought it was a good read.

But this is also my favorite because of those filters and the way any reader can take the list and make it give them a highly specific and expertly tailored suggestion. For that reason it is also my go-to resource all year long for my most difficult and picky patrons. When you give patrons access to the Book Concierge, for all of the years, they get to steer the ship to find their own suggestion. You are simply giving them a pre-approved universe of books to start their search with. Then they can be as picky as they want, choosing their own filters to narrow it down. And since these lists are VERY broad in terms of the types of books that are included each year, the results are very useful.

So visit the NPR Book Concierge now and have fun using it for yourself or your patrons, but don't forget about it all year long. It is a wonderful go-to resource and now, after years in existence, the compound interest of titles makes it even more useful. 

Resource Alert: Criminal Element

Genre blending is so pervasive that it is hard to find resources that are genre specific and yet represent the breadth of what readers of said genre are actually looking for as they look for a good read.

Readers who like "crime stories" are the best example. Some "crime" readers like mysteries only, while others read thrillers, adventure, and suspense [adrenaline genres]. But within those genres there is also a huge range of violence and tone. 

There are also readers for who "crime" means psychological suspense with its unreliable narrators, common open endings, and even despicable protagonists  [which can drive traditional mystery and adrenaline genre readers crazy, especially those who crave a colder ending and the "good" protagonist coming out happy and rewarded].

Others crave true crime. And all of this is without touching the format issue-- tv, movies, podcasts OR the fact that dozens of new "crime" titles come out every single week all year long.

It can be quite overwhelming especially as we help long-time fans who think they have "read everything you have." If we use the same old resources, it might seem like that is true to us too. [Hint: it is not.]

The only thing I can say for certain is always true about all "crime" readers is while they seem to be willing to consume any crime story, they actually do have very specific tastes, they just aren't sure how to articulate them beyond saying, "I like [enter series or author name here]."

There are so many great mystery and crime based resources, and tons of readalike lists available for us to use, but very few places give it all to you in one place like Criminal Element. This resource considers the general appeal of a story featuring a crime and looks at it with a team of writers that cover the FULL spectrum all in one place. There definition is very broad, even including horror where applicable. By featuring such a broad range of crime options, this allows us, the library worker, to also consider more options for our readers, options a traditional thriller or mystery resource alone would not provide.

I particularly like that they have both "Cozy Corner" and True Crime sections. These are two areas where my readers cannot get enough and I am always running out of new ideas. And again, when you look at those specific sections they consider all formats which is so helpful. "Readers" can want more than just books with their favorite kind of story, and we carry multiple formats.

I also like how they have essays about the crime genre. Those are archived here. I have used this archive to identify new authors and even tropes. For example, this recent essay by author Vanessa Savage about  Fairy Tales as Crime Stories. The concept is an awesome booklist/display idea for sure. But there is a vast backlist of essays to choose from. Take this essay from 2018 entitled, "Real-Life Lady Criminals of   Historical Fiction." Again, instant display/digital list idea!

You can use the 22 pages[!] of  essays to spark ideas for new ways to market some of the most popular books on your shelves.

Head on over to take a look for yourself. Because seriously, crime fiction along with romance, is our bread and butter, and yet, we allow some great older titles to languish in the stacks. We have SO MANY crime books, it is hard to remember all but the most recent or most popular authors. 

Let the resources help you and give your patrons a surprise, whether that is a great outside the box suggestion or a totally new and fresh display.

RA for All Flashback: The Hyper-Specific Reader

I have been receiving some questions from library workers who are noticing different behavior from their patrons right now, and one of the questions that keeps popping up is how do we help the extremely specific requests we seem to all be getting in higher numbers, with our limited collection access.

I think one of the reasons we are seeing an uptick in the hyper-specific request is because in this time of uncertainty, a book rec is something people can have more control over. Even my family members are getting way more specific than normal. There are other reasons too, and the whys don't really matter, but dealing with the hyper-specific reader is not always about giving them the exact book they are asking for. Often it is more about listening to them and working together to find a suggestion.

I had remembered answering a question similar to the ones I have been receiving from all of you, so I dug through the archives and found this post from 2017. I have also reposted it in its entirety below.

I also have a few more posts tagged "serving difficult patrons" that you could access.

Finally, if you have an immediate RA Service related question, use the search box for the blog [top left corner]. There are over 3,000 posts here on the blog. I might have already answered your question. I never mind if you contact me, but I have been receiving more inquiries than normal, so I might not be able to get back to you fast enough.

TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017

Advice on Dealing With Difficult Patrons-- The Hyper-Specific Reader

I get a lot of questions about serving specific difficult patrons and while I share my advice with the person asking, the advice often does not make it into the blog. It should. It could help more of you. So I am going to fix that now.

Today will be the first of an as needed series where I offer Advice on Dealing with Difficult Patrons. I will tag all of these posts "serving difficult patrons" so that they can all be indexed together.

If you have a specific difficult patron you would like my FREE advice on how to deal with, contact me with the details. The only rule I have is that I must be able to share the generalities of the question and my advice with the rest of the RA world.

Our first difficult patron is the Hyper-Specific Reader. You know the type. They only want to read a very specific book that may or may not exist. Here are a few I have had in the past:

• Only books that are “about baseball.” He would read fiction, nonfiction, kids, teen, adult, but it had to be “about baseball. It couldn’t just have baseball in it.
• Only books set during the time of the Tudors
• Only books with dragons
• My books cannot have the word cancer in them. Not just books with a cancer storyline. The word can’t be in there. 
• Only books from the mystery section....with the mystery sticker. Nothing from our regular fiction section which included many books that could be classified as mystery. And, don’t get me started about the fact that authors like Harlan Coben who started as mystery writers and moved into suspense, but in order to keep his books together we kept them all in the mystery section. She’d read his suspense titles but not other similar authors because they were not in the mystery section.

That is just a small sample from my 15 years at the RA Service desk. But last month when I travelled to South Carolina, this question came up again. The very general hyper-specific patron in question here would only read “antebellum stories set in the south that did NOT focus on slave life.” She was not against stories with slaves in them, she just didn’t want that point of view only.

We talked about titles that stretched her specifics and together the room came up with a few more suggestions. But that is not the point. The point is that eventually, if she stays this rigid, not only will we run out of books that exist within those parameters, but also, the staff will come to resent helping her. Both are equally as bad.

When dealing this hyper specific reader I suggested that together, they make a list of the books that she feels perfectly fit her specific tastes. Then she should also make a list of other books she has enjoyed that do not fit this mold [she had read a few outside her narrow box]. Then I suggested that they go on NoveList together and note the appeal factors that are similar across all of the books. Using the database they could let the computer identify some possible titles.

I really want to stress using a resource with this patron-- together at the desk. She was fairly stubborn and didn’t want the library workers “forcing” her to try something she wouldn’t like-- even though she was asking for their help [people, what are you going to do?]. By allowing the database to identify the titles, the pressure could be off the staff. The choices seem less personal based and more official. We can say, “this is a resource identified suggestion based on your previously enjoyed titles."

The key is to get at least 2 titles outside the hyper specific zone to use as a bridge. The staff in this situation had at least 4 or 5 that they knew of off the top of their heads. You need something to move you a bit out of the corner the patron has boxed herself into before you start.

You can do a version of this to fit the person. So with my baseball guy, we found out that one of the reasons he demanded baseball was that he was reading on his overnight security guard shift and he knew that baseball would keep his interest enough to keep him awake. So instead of struggling for more baseball books, we made a larger list of his interests and found him titles that included those [using NoveList and Goodreads]. As we went on helping him, we were able to find authors who he had enjoyed who also write in a series. Once he found a series he liked, he read them all. That kept his interest which kept him awake and happy.

The point is, we dug deeper together. Often the thing making the patrons so hyper specific and demanding has more to do with their insistence on that type of book. All you have to do is find them 1 book outside their comfort zone that they enjoyed and then they will try another, and another, and then even another. Soon they are miles away from that narrow boxed in corner.

I was just pointing this out to one of my former patrons who I still meet with weekly to help her choose her books. She used to only read James Patterson and Mary Higgins Clark. All other books she read grudgingly while she waited. Now she has found so many more authors across many genres that she is considering taking her name off the automatic holds list for Patterson. We both had a laugh about how a few years ago that would have been a “scandalous” thing to say for her.

One last thing though. It doesn’t always work. Sometimes, you cannot get the person to budge even a centimeter. There is a point where it is okay, with your supervisor's approval, to nicely tell the person that you can no longer help them.  I don't think we talk about this enough. If you have done all you can to match this reader with books and they are unwilling to try your suggestions, you are within your rights to simply allow them to browse alone.

For the record, I have done this with a handful of patrons over the years.

Make it clear that you cannot suggest books that haven’t been written, but that there are thousands of options at your fingertips now, books that she should give a chance. Books that you think she will like despite the fact that they are not exactly what she thinks she needs.

If she is still unwilling to read what you have to offer, then I have shown these people how to use NoveList [if you have it] to help themselves.  Again, you need to okay this with your supervisor.

We love to help readers find the perfect read, but we also cannot create books out of thin air. Don’t let unreasonable expectations make you resent your commitment to public service.

So try my advice on how to convince these hyper-specific readers to try something outside of their strict confines, but if you can’t get them to bite, move on to help the next person.

Call to Action: You Are Not Done Working Until Every Single One of Your Books Is Checked Out At Once

Today's Call to Action post is from a note I have had in my draft folder for a while and it something I often say during my in person appearances--

Your work is not done until every single one of your books is check out all at once.

Obviously this comment is meant to be provocative and spur conversation. It has way more nuance than it seems upon first glance; however, it does quickly sum up the entirety of our main mission in RA Service. Our job is to get the books out into the world, off our shelves, and into potential readers' hands. It is not to collect them, possess them, and be the gatekeepers, limiting access.

I know you all know this in theory but too often I see library workers getting possessive about "their books" or "their collection." The books are not yours. They belong to your community because they paid for them. You simply chose what to fill the shelves with. They trusted you with the funds to make their collective collection. We are there to figure out the most efficient and effective ways to get the right item in the right person's hand when they want or need it. Period. No buts.

I don't care if the book is one that has a tendency to disappear. Replace it. I don't care how you feel about the title at hand. If it is what that reader wants, give it to them.

I have literally had to tell library workers [both co-workers and clients] to stop limiting access, to stop thinking they are your books, to stop closing the gate. So that is why I developed this soundbite:

Your work is not done until every single one of your books is check out all at once.

It is an easy way to start this conversation. But let me break down a few deeper levels of meaning here.

First, this statement reminds us that we are matchmakers between the books languishing on the shelf and that perfect reader who would love said title if only they knew of its existence. Matchmaking is an active verb. This reminds us that we aren't supposed to sit back and wait for people to ask us for help. We need to always be working toward improving book discovery for our patrons. Whether we are actively book talking or making displays, posting lists, doing staff picks, whatever it is. Our job as Readers' Advisors is about us making the effort to match people with titles.

Second, this statement brings up key collection development issues. If your work is not done until every single title is checked out at once, then you need to ask yourself, why isn't every title checked out. This question is one we should always be asking ourselves. And the answer is two fold.

1. Are we buying the correct books for our community? All of us who do purchasing should always be assessing if the books we are choosing are what our community wants. I don't care what you want. Are your choices diverse and inclusive in every way, so that all members of the community can read about all human experiences? 
2. Are we weeding enough? Sometimes books that should be going out aren't because they are surrounded by too much junk. Weeding is essential to having a healthy collection

These are both huge topics that I, as well as many others, have discussed at length in other places, so of course, I am not doing them justice here, but I would also be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that these issues belong in this post, at least as a mention.

Third, in the your work is not done until....discussion is that this statement should also remind you about pushing those backlist titles. Books you know are a good read but which haven't  circulated in a while. I talk about the backlist and it's potential as a treasure trove of "new to you" options for readers often here on the blog, but today I am adding a brand new backlist tip:

I suggest having your team work together each month to identify some way back titles that you should all be book talking that month. Get 10 titles together, print out some quick info from NoveList or Goodreads, put it all together in one document and encourage staff to prioritize hand selling those titles that month.  You made the list by working together, so you are getting a wide variety of options and your patrons will love hearing about so many "new to them" titles. When we give them title suggestions they never would have found on their own, without us, they are happier with us and more willing to ask for help again, even if they didn't love the title. And by working together, you all do a little work, but together you make a huge impact. 

This leads to the fourth and final point: Try to suggest titles you haven't before. The backlist tip above is one way to do this. But another way is to simply roam your shelves and look for titles you have never heard of. Grab a few. Bring them back to the desk. Look them up in your favorite resource. Read some reviews- professional or reader comments. And then try suggesting the best sounding ones to a reader who may enjoy them. And if the book you pulled out randomly seems like a bad fit for your collection and you can't think of anyone to suggest it to, then weed it. You just tried point 4 but accomplished point 2. Winners all around there.

One of the benefits to living the mantra- Your work is not done until every single one of your books is check out all at once- is that along the way you will also be identifying new ideas of what to suggest to your patrons, leading them to finding new books that might even be in a different genre than they normally read, which will in turn lead to them trying more of what you have, which will in turn mean more of your titles get checked out. See where this is heading? In other words, living by this motto means you are also modeling it as a behavior and that will encourage your patrons, actively or subliminally, to try something hiding in the stacks too.

Obviously, you will never have all of your books checked out at once, but that's why it is a vision, not a mission. Mission statements help you to define what you are doing, but vision statements are the ideal of where you hope to get to in a perfect world, but realistically never will.

Have vision in your RA Service. Attempting to have all of your books checked out at once is a great way to keep that vision of ideal RA Service in front of you, on the horizon, not behind you in the review mirror.

For past Call to Action posts, click here.

Author Recommendations As An Invaluable RA Tool

To end the week I wanted to remind you of one of my favorite tools for matching readers with a good book and it is so easy because you don't do any of the work, all you do is guide them to a resource they will love-- the books their favorite authors love.

I do this all of the time, yet I often forget to remind you about it here on the blog because it is so second nature to me. However, the other day I was reminded of how invaluable this resource is when one of my favorite authors [Sarah Gailey] was gushing the praises of another one of my favorite authors [Grady Hendrix] on Twitter.

You can click here to read the full thread as to why they love all of his books [and inhaled them all in a few days]. You do not need a Twitter log-in the see the thread.

As a reader who loves the work of both of these authors, it gave me great joy to see Gailey appreciating and enthusiastically recommending Hendrix. And, it reminded me that these recommendations often work. Gailey writes alternative history, SF and Hendrix horror, and yet while they could seem very different, I like both so why wouldn't others? The one thing that unites their work is that they use thought-provoking humor and original and interesting frames. But that is not something you can articulate easily, especially if you, the library worker, hasn't read both writers yourself.

No worries though, the authors will do the work for you.

If a reader has a favorite author and is looking for a new read, let that favorite author do the suggesting. I have found that just about every time, the patron likes the suggestion too, even if it seems a little bit of a stretch recommendation. Once, I even had a patron love a suggestion that I showed them that their favorite author had made of a title, a title that only a year before I had also suggested to the same patron, but at the time, that same patron turned their nose up at my suggestion. Yup, it happened.

That is also a good point. This strategy of letting a favorite author suggest titles to your patrons is an especially good tactic with the difficult to serve patrons because while they might hate everything you give them, they are hard pressed to hate what their favorite author told them to read. I have seen it work even with the most hard to please patrons.

But where do you find these recommendations? Well the easiest place is Fantastic Fiction, a resource that compiles these recs, blurbs, and statements at the end of every author's entry. Stephen King is one of the most prolific at this. Click here and scroll to the bottom of his entry to see.

What I love about King's recs is that one, they are all spontaneous and honest. He will not provide solicited blurbs. And two, he reads so widely that his recs introduce his fans to so many different types of books.

Other places you can go to find these recommendations is the author's webpage, their social media, or search for author interviews with Google [or sometimes they have them listed on their websites]. Often authors are asked to recommend their favorite books in interviews, and their answers change over time, so check multiple interviews.

Once our patrons have broadened their horizons by trying a book they never would have given a shot except that a favorite author liked it, our job gets much easier. These patrons are more willing to try something new because they have done it once and liked it. Also as I mentioned already, an author rec may send them further afield from their usual choices. And once they have tried something really different that opens a whole new line of possible suggestions.

My recommendation is try this with yourself first. Use my suggested resources and find a book that one of your favorite authors enjoyed, a title you wouldn't have tried on your own without that recommendation. Then see if you like it too.

The Never Ending Suggestions of Largehearted Boy's Best Books of 2018 Database

All month I have been trying to give you as many varied suggestions of "best books" lists that you can use so that you do not run out of "best book" suggestions for your patrons. One of my back pocket tricks to keep the "best books" flowing into patrons' hands despite the rush to check them all out is to remind them that previous year's "best books" are still a great option. [Click here for more by me on this.]

But, as I know all too well, that doesn't cut it with every patron. Some only want to read this year's best as the year comes to a close, and they will not hear otherwise, no matter how you explain it to them. Of course we know that many of these titles 2018 appear on multiple lists, and by this point [2 weeks before the end of the year], the most common "best books" are checked out and have long holds lists.

So, what should you do with these particular patrons? Give up? NOPE.

Largehearted Boy is here, like he has been every year for the last eleven years to help you, with his archive of every online "best books" list. There are hundreds of lists, and he includes library best lists too.

So never fear. Click here and pull up the entire archive. It is just what you need in these waning days of the year, as your 2018 "best" stock is dwindling.

Click here to access.

Psst....he also has easy access to every previous year's list too. While, these more particular patrons might not want those, you can use it on everyone else too.

Reader Question About Listen-a-Likes

Here is another real life question from a librarian in the trenches of RA Service. I have received permission to share this question from Pat at Crystal Lake [IL] Public Library. Below I share the question and my response.

If you have a question about a specific patron-- contact me and let’s work on it. I might use it here on the blog to help others.

Question: 

My colleagues and I work with an avid reader with visual difficulties.  At this point she is only able to read via audiobooks and goes through about 10 books a week.  She loves the readers George Guidall and Simon Prebble and mostly wants to read spy fiction or thrillers (no Patterson!).  We are starting to exhaust our supply of audiobooks narrated by these two narrators.  She realizes the situation and is starting to soften on trying other readers, but she is fairly particular about it. My question for you:  Is there a place to go to find sound-alikes for a particular narrator?  Novelist has listen-alikes, but I don’t think the focus is on a specific narrator.

Becky’s Answer:

You are correct, there are no specific “listen-a-like” sources. Some of this is because of the fact that people like a narrator for many reasons- some of which as you note in your question have to do with fact that narrators don’t stick to one genre. Prebble and Guidall are two excellent narrators who do read many types of books. 

So while I don’t have a specific sound-a-like resource that will solve her problems magically, I do have a couple of suggestions on ways to help her that she can participate in with you. The result will be more titles for her to enjoy.

First, figure out her favorite books narrated by these two men. Then help her find straight readalikes for those series. But, look them up on Audible before suggesting a title.  This way you can not only listen to a snippet of the narration with her, but you can read her customer reviews that speak about the narration specifically.  Make sure to look at the 5 star and 2 star reviews so that you can see the lovers and the critics. This will help you narrow down the type of book she is looking for first and then select the narrator second.

On Audible you can search by genre and narrator. So if you use NoveList and Goodreads to find readalikes based on the story, then you can go into Audible to refine it a little more. 

Second, in this case Prebble and Guidall are Golden Voices on Audiofile Magazine. The Golden Voice database is an excellent place to begin helping her. Let her know that these are other narrators deemed the best of the best, just like her two favorites. You can start there by listening to others and reading interviews with them about their work. I have had great luck using this page as a starting point to help my audiobook readers who care about the narrator as much as, or even more than, the story itself.

From my experience with patrons who have similar tastes I think she would probably also like Simon Vance and/or Dion Graham. I would start with them. Both read suspense and thrillers.

In general, however, Audiofile Magazine is the only place where you can read critical information about narrators, from reviews to interviews to essays. It takes a little more digging than a simple NoveList search, but everything has an audio clip. Both you and your patron will love using it together. There is so much information there, and since she is willing to try something new, you are bound to find something she will enjoy.

This two-pronged attack will settle the listen-a-like issue because you are considering both the story she wants to read and the style of narration. It is clear that you cannot divorce one from the other with this patron. I am similar. There are narrators I adore in general, but when they narrate a book I don’t like, I still don’t like it. 

Also, since she is such a voracious consumer of audiobooks, this strategy will work well over time. You will never “run out” of books by a specific narrator again because you are considering the content and the narration together. There are always new books coming out, and she will find new series and narrators she enjoys. All of which create more connection points to match her with her next good listen. This strategy broadens her options and will allow you to keep helping her indefinitely. 

Advice on Dealing With Difficult Patrons-- The Hyper-Specific Reader

I get a lot of questions about serving specific difficult patrons and while I share my advice with the person asking, the advice often does not make it into the blog. It should. It could help more of you. So I am going to fix that now.

Today will be the first of an as needed series where I offer Advice on Dealing with Difficult Patrons. I will tag all of these posts "serving difficult patrons" so that they can all be indexed together.

If you have a specific difficult patron you would like my FREE advice on how to deal with, contact me with the details. The only rule I have is that I must be able to share the generalities of the question and my advice with the rest of the RA world.

Our first difficult patron is the Hyper-Specific Reader. You know the type. They only want to read a very specific book that may or may not exist. Here are a few I have had in the past:

• Only books that are “about baseball.” He would read fiction, nonfiction, kids, teen, adult, but it had to be “about baseball. It couldn’t just have baseball in it.
• Only books set during the time of the Tudors
• Only books with dragons
• My books cannot have the word cancer in them. Not just books with a cancer storyline. The word can’t be in there. 
• Only books from the mystery section....with the mystery sticker. Nothing from our regular fiction section which included many books that could be classified as mystery. And, don’t get me started about the fact that authors like Harlan Coben who started as mystery writers and moved into suspense, but in order to keep his books together we kept them all in the mystery section. She’d read his suspense titles but not other similar authors because they were not in the mystery section.

That is just a small sample from my 15 years at the RA Service desk. But last month when I travelled to South Carolina, this question came up again. The very general hyper-specific patron in question here would only read “antebellum stories set in the south that did NOT focus on slave life.” She was not against stories with slaves in them, she just didn’t want that point of view only.

We talked about titles that stretched her specifics and together the room came up with a few more suggestions. But that is not the point. The point is that eventually, if she stays this rigid, not only will we run out of books that exist within those parameters, but also, the staff will come to resent helping her. Both are equally as bad.

When dealing this hyper specific reader I suggested that together, they make a list of the books that she feels perfectly fit her specific tastes. Then she should also make a list of other books she has enjoyed that do not fit this mold [she had read a few outside her narrow box]. Then I suggested that they go on NoveList together and note the appeal factors that are similar across all of the books. Using the database they could let the computer identify some possible titles.

I really want to stress using a resource with this patron-- together at the desk. She was fairly stubborn and didn’t want the library workers “forcing” her to try something she wouldn’t like-- even though she was asking for their help [people, what are you going to do?]. By allowing the database to identify the titles, the pressure could be off the staff. The choices seem less personal based and more official. We can say, “this is a resource identified suggestion based on your previously enjoyed titles."

The key is to get at least 2 titles outside the hyper specific zone to use as a bridge. The staff in this situation had at least 4 or 5 that they knew of off the top of their heads. You need something to move you a bit out of the corner the patron has boxed herself into before you start.

You can do a version of this to fit the person. So with my baseball guy, we found out that one of the reasons he demanded baseball was that he was reading on his overnight security guard shift and he knew that baseball would keep his interest enough to keep him awake. So instead of struggling for more baseball books, we made a larger list of his interests and found him titles that included those [using NoveList and Goodreads]. As we went on helping him, we were able to find authors who he had enjoyed who also write in a series. Once he found a series he liked, he read them all. That kept his interest which kept him awake and happy.

The point is, we dug deeper together. Often the thing making the patrons so hyper specific and demanding has more to do with their insistence on that type of book. All you have to do is find them 1 book outside their comfort zone that they enjoyed and then they will try another, and another, and then even another. Soon they are miles away from that narrow boxed in corner.

I was just pointing this out to one of my former patrons who I still meet with weekly to help her choose her books. She used to only read James Patterson and Mary Higgins Clark. All other books she read grudgingly while she waited. Now she has found so many more authors across many genres that she is considering taking her name off the automatic holds list for Patterson. We both had a laugh about how a few years ago that would have been a “scandalous” thing to say for her.

One last thing though. It doesn’t always work. Sometimes, you cannot get the person to budge even a centimeter. There is a point where it is okay, with your supervisor's approval, to nicely tell the person that you can no longer help them.  I don't think we talk about this enough. If you have done all you can to match this reader with books and they are unwilling to try your suggestions, you are within your rights to simply allow them to browse alone.

For the record, I have done this with a handful of patrons over the years.

Make it clear that you cannot suggest books that haven’t been written, but that there are thousands of options at your fingertips now, books that she should give a chance. Books that you think she will like despite the fact that they are not exactly what she thinks she needs.

If she is still unwilling to read what you have to offer, then I have shown these people how to use NoveList [if you have it] to help themselves.  Again, you need to okay this with your supervisor.

We love to help readers find the perfect read, but we also cannot create books out of thin air. Don’t let unreasonable expectations make you resent your commitment to public service.

So try my advice on how to convince these hyper-specific readers to try something outside of their strict confines, but if you can’t get them to bite, move on to help the next person.