Week 4: Building Base Knowledge (Goodreads)

Week 4: Assignment 1


I, like many other bloggers on here, have had a Goodreads account for a very long time but it sort of fell by the wayside over the years. As a librarian I use Goodreads a lot to look up the order that books go in if they're in a series (because usually the author's website is no help). I never really used it personally.


But now that I'm back in, I'm realizing how fun it is! I loved making shelves to categorize the books I had read. I think I struggled a lot with reader's advisory because I couldn't quite identify myself as a reader. I always thought that I read "everything", but once I started making shelves I realized that I basically like two types of books. One is what I would call "slightly sci-fi", or fiction featuring dystopian themes and futuristic societies, but still pretty realistic. The other shelf I made I broadly categorized as "turn of the century" because I love reading about the late 1800s-early 1900s. Think high society, industrial revolution, Edith Wharton, women's suffrage, and very early feminist texts. I also encompassed works by Gustave Flaubert and Willa Cather in this shelf, because I love their writing style and they are roughly in this time period as well.


I did the best I could with making friends with colleagues. Speaking of which, here is the link to my profile! Check it out! https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/30453283-crystal-chong


I recommended a book by Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story) to Rebecca, because she seems to be an avid teen reader. I mentioned that Ned Vizzini is a great teen author for boys, but his work appeals to girls as well because teenage girls are definitely curious about what teenage boys are thinking. (At least I was, when I was a teenager).


To Hannah, I recommended another Margaret Atwood book. She had mentioned interest in The Handmaid's Tale, which is a classic, so I recommended one of Margaret Atwood's more recent books: The Year of the Flood. A lot of times when an author writes a novel that becomes a classic, it is sort of a one-hit wonder for them. This is not at all the case for Margaret Atwood. She's a very prolific writer and each of her books have great literary merit to them. Therefore, I thought another Margaret Atwood book would be a good recommendation. Also, Margaret Atwood visited my school and gave a talk to the English department and she was very cool.


Overall, I think Goodreads is neat, but I do have one small complaint. There are too many channels of communication! When I brought it up to my coworkers they said they had commented on some of my posts but I never got notifications from them. Perhaps something is up with my settings. I will have to investigate further. Communication aside, Goodreads is a lot of fun and I definitely think making more shelves will help with my reader's advisory!