In class, we had a warmup where one person chatted online with another posing
as a reference librarian asking for other books like their favorite children’s
book. A third person was a researcher helping out the reference person. This
was a pretty difficult warmup, but I think a big part of it was because the
person asking us the questions was being difficult (which means he did a great
job at stumping us!). He told us that he liked this one book because it had his
name in it. So at first we started looking for titles with his name on it but
then he said he liked that it was an adventure. So then I started looking for
that and as soon as I started coming up with something, he said he liked that
it was about different cultures, then he later said Eskimos. I was having a
heck of a time keeping up. We found a whole bunch of Eskimo books and then he
said he wanted something that was about a blow dart because an Eskimo took the
balloon down with a blow dart. At this time, our time was almost up and I
couldn’t find anything about a blow dart. It was very frustrating. But this scenario
could have easily happened when dealing with a child (which he was doing a
great job channeling and snickering the whole time about it too :-P ). Later the professor said that Google Books is
really good for helping to narrow down search terms. Sure enough, I put blow
dart into the search box, and lo and behold, a whole bunch of children’s books
about blow darts showed up. I will never forget to use Google Books to help
with search terms after this.
We then talked about galleys, which are advanced reader copies. You
create a profile on a company’s website, and if they like your profile, they
will send you an online version of their book to read and then write a review. I
have always wanted to do this, but alas I don’t have the time. Plus, there are
way too many books on my list to read that I want to read first.
We then moved on to reader’s advisory in regards to gender. We talked a little
bit about how female authors will publish under initials or pseudonyms because
otherwise they are looked down upon. The professor mentioned the author Eloisa
James who in reality is Mary Bly, an Elizabethan scholar, and the daughter of a
famous poet, Robert Bly. I was shocked to learn this. I own and have read some
books by Eloisa James. I wasn’t aware it was a pseudonym. For all the negative criticisms
against romance books, some of them are actually written by those who have
valid credentials. It’s no wonder I like some of them, because they are written
by historians. One author I like publishes books under two different names:
Shannon Drake and Heather Graham (her maiden name). I don’t know why she
publishes under both. I used to think it was based on the type of romance books
(area, century, etc.), but that’s not the case.
We then discussed why intellects love literary greats, but at the same
time we like “junk”. The professor said it’s because it’s a comfort thing;
books are formulaic and consistent (especially in a series, which she mentioned
Nancy Drew). This brought to mind Archie comics. Archie comics have been around
for a long time. My mom read them when she was young. Archie comics have been
very consistent. For decades, Archie has dated both Veronica and Betty, never
truly picking one over the other. In recent years, they have actually mixed
this up and created a series where Archie gets married to one of them. But here’s
the catch: there are two parallel stories, what happens if he married Betty and
what happens if he married Veronica. Today, they are still creating both
parallel stories. I wonder what made them do this; maybe readers got really
tired of the same old same old (decades worth) so they changed the story a
little bit. But it’s still pretty much the same though.
Talking about junk vs. literary greats made me think of why adults love
to read books from the young adult genre. I love reading YA. I have coworkers
who are in their 60s and they love to read YA as well. I’m talking about books that
are a series such as Harry Potter, The Maze Runner, Twilight, Percy Jackson,
Divergent, The Hunger Games. What is it about these that all ages love to read
them? They’re supposed to be kid books. Is it because they are an easy read, or
something else?
I think people like YA because the writing style is often straightforward and one is able to read them quickly. However, despite this, YA is able to address a variety of serious topics in language that not only benefits teens but adults as well. Don't get me wrong, I love improving my vocabulary as much as the next person, but I feel sometimes people get bogged down by the mechanics of reading when if the actually reading is ubiquitous a person is able to more fully focus on the content which is often very nuanced. Does that make any sense? Not saying this is the only reason people like YA, but these are the reasons that I can come up with.
ReplyDeleteThe conversation about gender and pseudonyms stuck with me too. I think it is interesting how you mention credentials here as a kind of qualifier for what makes certain romance books better than others. While it makes sense that someone who has spent a lot of time studying a certain period will have an advantage writing a novel set in that period, I think 'credentialism' can sometimes be part of the problem when it comes to genre stigma. Lots of MFAs want to write literary fiction with their literary degrees, which can be kind of insular and constraining for their output I think.
ReplyDeleteI think the literary great vs. "junk" dichotomy is just another way of characterizing challenging reads vs. comforting reads, as you mentioned. I don't really think there is any intrinsic value in one or the other, but they accomplish different goals. I think the appeal of YA novels is that they straddle both realms of challenging and comforting, as they often start off formulaic but then some great disruption happens that causes the reader to examine their beliefs or expectations from when they started the book (or series). Both Harry Potter and The Hunger Games use that disruption in their final books to great effect.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed how you brought up the discussion of female authors. It makes me wonder how the librarians role relates to these type of issues. Are we responsible for intervening and making recommendations in readers advisory knowing we are picking one book over another simply because it was written by a female authors or lesser known publishing press. Or does that too closely relate to bringing our personal persona's into the job. I think it depends on if we believe in equal opportunity publishing or if it is a value of our community that we serve that we are trying to uphold.
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