Week 11 Prompt

I am a fan of both traditional paper books and e-books. I haven't used audio-books, because they don't really appeal to me. 

The physical differences between books, e-books, and audio-books don't really affect my knowledge of genres. The genre of a story is determined by the writing, the pacing, the language, the setting. I don't believe physical does, or should, have any part of what makes fantasy, fantasy, or fiction, fiction. The readers' ability to change font, line spacing, and text color enhance the pacing and tone, in my opinion. Same with track length, narrator choice, and possible music in audio-books. All this is doing is making stories more accessible. People with reading issues such as dyslexia probably find it easier to read an e-book where they can pick a font that makes it easy to distinguish letters, at a size that they can see easily. Audio-books are great for people who have severe reading disabilities, are blind, or simply find actual reading too tedious. I suppose the narrator does influence how the story is told by choosing the inflection and pacing.

Overall, I think the use of newer media in books is a good thing, and offers a greater appeal to reading. Personally, anything that makes stories more accessible can only be a good thing.

Fantasy Annotation

Title: Trickster's Choice

Author: Tamora Pierce

Publication Date: 2003

Genre: Fantasy

Number of Pages: 448

Summary:

Alianne is the daughter of Alanna, the first lady knight in Tortall. The blood of the Lioness runs thick in her veins, but is the quieter nature of her father that young Aly follows as she learns the tricks and tools of being a spymaster. After being captured and sold as a slave to an exiled royal family in islands far from her home, Aly must make use of all of her skills to survive in a world filled with bloody politics, conspiracy, and a Trickster God looking to take back his throne.

Characteristics that fit in with Fantasy:

• Magic frames the story
• Story lines feature Good versus Evil
• Mood ranges from humorous to dark; ultimately optimistic
• Language and style frame everything
• Emphasis on landscape

Read-Alikes:

• The Traitor's Game by Jennifer A. Nielsen
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
• The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

Book Club Experience

The book club that I observed was hosted by a friend of mine, and the members were friends of hers and mutual friends of ours. I’ve gone to the club occasionally, but usually don’t find the time. It’s not a very scheduled thing, but they do try to meet at least once a month. There’s a group chat that explodes when one member or another reads something they think is great and wants to share with everyone else. I got lucky in that my friend found a book that the rest of the club was interested in, and we met. The book discussed was Trickster’s Choice by Tamora Pierce.

My friend was the leader for this meeting. Usually, whoever recommends the book is the one who leads. They usually open with how people liked the book, just to get a general sense of how people feel. The meetings usually take place at someone’s house, but occasionally we like to go out to eat and have a very informal discussion. The general atmosphere is easy and informal. It’s just a bunch of friends, eating and drinking and talking books.

The questions asked are pretty open ended. ‘How did you like it?’ ‘What did you think about this scene?’ There were a few yes or no questions that could be expanded on, such as one that the leader asked: ‘Do you feel that the Trickster is being truthful with Aly with his ambitions?’. This question took up a good portion of the conversation, and led to other members asking related questions.

Anyone who attends is assumed to have read the book. There were a few that just listened to the conversation, chiming in with a ‘yes/no’ type comment here and there, but were generally pleased to just listen along.

There wasn’t anyone who really tried to steal the spotlight. There was a question posed over the possible colonialization-narrative, and this sparked off a very heated, but very detailed and informative, debate. However, no one was overtly offensive, and no one took great offense to opinions stated. This probably has to do with everyone being friends and used to talking to each other like this.

There isn’t a set genre or style of books that this book club likes to read. All genres are pretty well covered because all of the members like different types of books. In this instance, the book was overall a hit with the members.

Special Topics Paper Summary

I did my paper over a brief history of readers' advisory in the United States. I specifically wanted to look at when RA services really became a thing.

What I learned was that while the first libraries were being built in the 1600s (starting with Harvard University's library), RA services weren't discussed until the 1870s, when Samuel Green wrote a paper titled "Personal Intercourse and Relations between Librarians and Readers in Popular Libraries." This is the first instance of RA services being an idea, though they weren't called such back then. Research on the subject found that while these services could be available in the academic libraries, students were mostly taught to rely on their textbooks rather than outside sources, and thus the service wasn't used. When public libraries started being built in the 1830s, RA services became more necessary.

Early readers' advisory services were focused on furthering the education of the public. There was little thought put towards leisure materials. The early RA interviews were very private, having separate offices to conduct the interviews. As more and more of the public became educated, and with Depression-era free time, leisure reading began to rise, and RA services had to adapt.

Today's readers' advisory services are much less formal and less geared towards knowledge only. Most RA interviews can be conducted by any library staff, or anyone at all that cares about reading and wishes to share that with others. There aren't separate rooms for conducting the interview. RA services continue to change as our society continues to change.