It’s summertime – for some, that’s the time when they actually read books for enjoyment. Although I don’t normally read a whole bunch (I know, I’m a failure of a librarian), I did just finish my second book of the year. Be nice now, because that’s twice as many as I read last year.
Anyway, I’ve kind of gotten the hang of this whole ‘reading’ thing and decided that I wouldn’t mind reading ANOTHER book. Whoa.
But here’s my dilemma – what do I read next? I could either A) ask anyone else that works here for recommendations or…
B) use the Book Seer to offer suggestions on my next literary adventure. To put it to the test, I just finished reading Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (good stuff). The Book Seer thought that I would also enjoy A Million Little Pieces by James Frey or Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters, as well as other titles by Burroughs and Frey.
Just make sure that you actually liked the book that you just finished reading when using the Book Seer. Otherwise, you’re stuck with another bomb.
Thanks to Patty (and Lifehacker) for the link!
Book Crush:
For Kids and Teens
Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Interest
by Nancy Pearl
Z1037 .P35 2007
New Book Island, 2nd floor
Have you ever been so into a book that you couldn’t put it down? Maybe so into the book’s characters that you had a little crush on one of them? It may not have happened recently (unless you’re a Harry Potter fan), but maybe when you were younger. I read a lot as a kid, and today’s featured book brings back some memories.
Nancy Pearl, a rock star in the library world (seriously, she has her own action figure), has written a follow-up to her popular Book Lust aimed at younger readers that haven’t found out about ‘lust’ yet but are still in the ‘crush’ phase. Pearl recommends over a thousand books for children and teens, grouped into 118 lists to strike their fancy, whatever they’re into at the moment.
Who could use this book? This would be great for our budding teachers for putting together lesson plans or classroom displays. Parents with children under 18 would also find this useful to try to engage their youngster in the wonderful world of reading.
Is your personal library out of control? Don’t know what you have? Or are you looking for recommendations for the next book to read from others who like the same genre? Got some spare time before spring semester starts? LibraryThing may be what you need!
Controlling your personal library:
Creating an account is easy and free. Add titles to your online library and tag them (assign words or phrases to describe them) for easy control and retrieval. Enter 200 books for free, as many as you like for $10 (year) or $25 (life). If you don’t want to share your library’s contents you can make it private.
Getting recommendations for books to read:
Either use the “Book Suggestions” tab to enter a title you own/love, and the system will suggest other titles to you, or search for books by authors, titles, or tags (words or phrases assigned to books by readers). Tags run the gamut from “vampire smut” to “string theory,” and with more then 21 million books entered so far, there has got to be a good book in there for you!
For more information, see About LibraryThing.
