Using Donated Books as Passive Readers Advisory

 My library system has a program we call Libraries Unshelved. Donated books in good condition have labels placed with our library's information and explaining that whomever has the book is welcome to either keep it, pass it on, or return it to the library. We also include bookmarks or flyers with program or digital services information. 

A program like this could be expanded to provide passive readers advisory by changing the information on one of the labels or flyers to include readalikes for the book. This will help guide the reader to other titles if they enjoy this book while also providing a clue as to whom the book will appeal. Don't forget to include non-fiction and youth materials in your program. Non-fiction and fiction can also be used as readalikes for each other. There are many non-fiction titles that are compelling and readable as any fiction book. 

If most of your donations go to a book sale, you may need to work iwth your administration or friends of the library group to get a program like this started. It could be expanded to include patron input if you supply a form that allows a patron to include a short review and their own readalikes. That information can be included with the book as well. 

Work with your local businesses, recreation department, senior center, and other buildings where the public gathers to identify places where you can place your own Unshelved collection, Places like laundromats and barbershops can be great places to start. Some restaurants and coffee shops may also want to participate. 

Your library's presence in your community can be expanded by placing these curated books in public places outside the walls of your library. Including readers advisory information will help place your library as where readers can come for assistance and support while also helping to create what readers advisory expert Becky Spratford calls "a community of readers" with your library at the center.

Ideas For Book Displays and Other Passive Readers Advisory - Basic Book Content

Listed below are some sites where you can find information about books in general including lists, reviews, and feature articles. There is content on most of them about the various genres of fiction as well so keep that in mind. Obviously, I haven't listed all sites imaginable but let me know if there is a great one I missed!

My suspicion is that I will need to make a part two of this!

Barnes & Noble may seem like an odd choice but their blog has great ideas you can use to market your library's collection.

Book Riot has podcasts, feature articles, newsletters and more. It's definitely a site many avid readers are using for information.

Entertainment Weekly has book reviews as well as book news and lists. You can also curate a book display by looking at what is popular in other areas of entertainment. "Books to read if you love [popular television show]" as an example. 

Esquire has book content including lists, interviews,  and best of the year content for genre. 

Goodreads has its pros and cons but there are a lot of lists on a wide range of topics on the site. It can be very useful while you are trying to find titles for a book display. 

Kirkus Reviews also includes feature articles and news in addition to reviews and a lot of book lists. 

NPR books includes reviews, industry news, and lists including genre content. 

People Magazine has a book section with lists and feature articles. Many of the books they highlight appear on our request lists. 

The famous Powell's Books in Portland, OR has a blog with book news, interviews, and lists.

Formerly Tor.com, Reactor has news, columns, blogs, and information about fiction in general as well as genre focused content. There is a lot of fun reading to be had on this site that should inspire your passive readers advisory. 

Readers Advisory expert Becky Spratford maintains a blog with so much great information about books, reading, and readers services in libraries. She usually posts daily, Monday - Friday, so add checking out RA For All to your daily routine. She includes information about all the major book awards, how to use them, as well as a lot of other information that will enhance your ability to help patrons. 

Library Journal is an obvious choice for someone who works in a library. I do want to highlight their Book Pulse which usually comes out daily. You can sign up for an email notification of when it posts. They highlight media appearances by authors, let you know which books were selected by the big celebrity book clubs, adaption information, as well as a lot of other book news that is very helpful. 

Booklist Online is another ALA site with book and book review information for librarians. As with Library Journal, some of the content is paywalled. 

Most major newspapers have book review sections and they can be useful for getting ideas for readers advisory. Don't forget your local paper's book section, if they have one. The bigger national papers have a wider audience but your patrons will react to local news. I will list a few of the biggest sites: USA Today, New York Times, Washington Post, and The Guardian. 

The AP has a page with their book information curated. A wide range of genres, fiction and non-fiction, as well as youth material is included. 

10 Books for Fans of [that popular tv show or movie]

This is an easy way to harness pop culture to move your backlist. There are no right answers as to what books fans of a certain show might like because what draws people to a television show or movie is different. Use your collection and involve staff, any staff, who are fans of that show or movie. If the first one you choose makes it difficult to find enough items, add a second one and create your own version of the Barbie/Oppenheimer mashup “Barbenheimer.” 

An alternative way to harness excitement about a show or movie is to come up with a display highlighting titles that characters from the show would like. Again, there are no right answers. You can allow patrons to suggest titles if you wish for it to be a passive program as well. 

You can also use the setting or time period from a particular show as the basis for a book display. Expand it to include other books and movies that take place in the same location as well as travel and non-fiction about that place. An easy example would be to use backlist titles about Maine if a Stephen King movie was trending. 

If the movie is based upon a particular title, use read likes for that book. I did that when Bird Box by Josh Malerman was on Netflix and again when It by Stephen King was popular. You can create a list with title suggestions for multiple shows because the internet loves a list.

 I will include some links to lists below so that you can find some inspiration. 

• If You Liked This Show, Read This Book: Recs Based On Popular TV Shows

• 24 Books To Buy ASAP If You Flew Through These TV Series And Movies

• Like These Movies? Here Are 100+ Things You Might Also Like ...

• The 17 Best Books Like ‘Bridgerton’

• Timey-Wimey Books for Doctor Who Fans

• Graphic Novels a Kaiju Would Read and So Should You

• Books with heroes like Jack Reacher

• 9 of the Best YA Books to Read if You Love The Hunger Games

January Book Display Ideas

What everyone wants to do in January is a “New Year, New You” display. The fact is that individuals don’t need to craft new versions of themselves every year. Instead, encourage your patrons to –

• Learn something new: Set up titles about learning a language, a skill, a craft. Look for basic history books about lesser-known events or places. 

• Cook something new: Baking and cooking books that haven’t gotten enough attention. 

• Meet someone new: Character centered fiction that hasn’t circulated recently. 

• Visit someplace new: Travel books and books from your local collection. Look for titles that haven’t been checked out in the last six months. 

You can expand these as you need to fit your collection. For example, it’s also a great time to try a new genre or start a new-to-you series. Pair these displays with your programs and services. 

Don’t forget to include youth and young adult materials in your displays. Move those titles to areas outside of the designated youth and young adult areas. Never assume that all your patrons are aware of every part of your collection and all of your services. 

January 3 is JRR Tolkien Day, celebrated because it is the author’s birthday. Look for read alikes for his books and promote your backlist. Also with Appreciate a Dragon Day is January 16 so you could stretch out these displays for the month. Here are some lists to get you started: 

• 15 Books Like Lord of the Rings

• If You Like The Hobbit, You Might Like

• Leave Middle Earth for these ‘Lord of the Rings’ Read-Alikes

• Diverse Adult Fantasy Novels with Magic

• 19 Fantasy Novels Inspired by Cultures from Around the World

Mon, Jan 15, 2024 is also Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Include titles about the Civil Rights Movement, including any fiction and DVDs you have. Don’t forget youth titles. 

Betty White Day is January 17 which would have been her 100th birthday. Beyond books about her and any DVDs you have which include her, you can have fun and do some sort of Golden Girls display or pet-themed fiction display. Set up a display including information about your local animal shelters to remember Betty White’s love of animals. 

The United Nations General Assembly designated January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Don’t forget fiction while you look through your non-fiction collection. The United States Holocaust Museum and Memorial has resources you can include as part of your digital displays. 

It’s very easy to find lists of January holidays online. You don’t need to look at all of them earnestly but pick one or two which inspire you to dig through your backlist. For example, January is also National Egg Month which means lots of fiction with chickens and eggs on the cover or as part of the title. There would also be breakfast and egg themed cookbooks and books about raising chickens. Youth materials would be fun as well. 

Book Display Idea - Read Alikes for The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese is on the top of holds lists, helped by Oprah's selection of the title as her 101st book club pick. We can't buy copies to immediately fill every hold but you can both advertise your holds list and suggest titles from your collection at the same time. 

If your library has copies in your digital collection, include a QR code or information about that service in the display. Never assume that a patron knows about all of your services. If they come into your library, visit your website, or social media looking for this title, you can show them how to get on the request list while also pointing out that there are great books to read in the meantime. 

Ebsco's Novelist is a good tool to use for discovering read-alikes, if your library subscribes. There are read-alikes listed and you can use the "appeal factors" (things like genre, time period, tone, writing style etc) to find similar enough titles in your collection. If you don't have it, you can search your library catalog using subject headings to find other books that are "close enough." Book displays and lists aren't a test. They are a way to market your collection and to help patrons potentially find their next great read. A patron may not care about The Covenant of Water but might see a cover that catches their eye in your display or on your online list. That's a win. 

Options for read-alikes? There are Verghese's previous titles. Those are an easy pick and your library likely owns Cutting for Stone in physical or digital form. Look at other authors who write about India including Salman Rushdie or other books which are sprawling historical sagas covering generations of a family such as: 

The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
Palace Walk by Najib Mahfuz
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

There are many  titles that are family sagas that are not necessarily about India. 

Barkskins by Annie Proulx
Dust Child by Phan Que Mai
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
New York: The Novel by Edward Rutherford

A secret is to look for read-alikes for these authors or titles if you these aren't part of your collection. 

There are a few lists with read-alikes- 
Books Similar to The Covenant of Water on Goodreads
Read-Alikes for The Covenant of Water from the Arlington Public Library

Book Display Idea - Use a specific book : Wasps in the Ice Cream by Tim McGregor

 Growing up can be hazardous as noted by the many coming of age horror books. This popular theme is part of what makes Wasps in the Ice Cream by Tim McGregor such a great read. The listless summer of 1987 finds Mark Prewitt spending time with friends he's not sure that he likes anymore, working two part-time jobs to restore an old car, and mooning after one of the hot girls in school. The Farrow sisters are part of a strange, reclusive family, subject to rumor and the hatred of the other people in their small town. After he participates in a prank pulled on the Farrow sisters, Mark decides to try to make amends. He is drawn into their world, especially that of the middle sister, George. When their secret relationship is exposed, Mark has to choose between his friends and the world he and George have created. 

Beyond coming of age and the late 80's, the book also has themes of aliention and  small towns, outsiders, family secrets, alienation and disaffection. There are also Satanic panic vibes as rumors and stories about the Farrows swirl around the small town. A book list or display of read alikes can be created with any these ideas at the center. 

Coming of age in the 80's horror? Try putting up these titles on a display - 

• The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay
• Whisper Down the Lane by Clay McLeod Chapman
• Ghoul by Brian Keene
• The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste
• Straight on Til Morning and All Hallows, both by Christopher Golden
• My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix 
  

I think that Ghoul and Rust Maidens are probably the closest read alikes. However, Whisper Down the Lane is about the Satanic Panic which somewhat mirrors the sort of rumors and panic that the Farrow sisters faced. Mercy from The Pallbearer's Club is another character like George who is a spooky outsider who is a possible threat to the protagonist. 

George is my favorite character in the book so I'm a little biased. I also loved Mercy in The Pallbearer's Club. A display that focused on girls like George might be popular given the hit series Wednesday. Other books with an outsider teenage girl coming of age include: 

• Boring Girls by Sara Taylor
• Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi DeMeester
• The Girls by Emma Cline
• We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix
• Jawbone by Monica Ojeda
  

If you want to use George Farrow as the center of your book list or display, you can tap some of the Wednesday Addams book lists online. There are some from Buzzfeed, Booktopia, and YA readalikes from Teen Librarian Toolbox. 

The small town 80's setting will make some of your patrons think of Stranger Things and there is nothing wrong with harnessing a pop culture trend to help draw attention to your collection's back list. There are plenty of lists with read alikes including from Book Riot, YA titles from Epic Reads, and Goodreads. 

The Farrows are a secretive family, Family secrets can help a book have a sense of dread. More books with family secrets are listed on: Goodreads, Novel Suspects, and Crime Reads. 

There are also non-fiction books including memoirs that you can add to a display. Don't allow yourself to be limited by genre. If you make your displays more open, they are easier to fill throughout the time the display is active. 

Here are some more lists with ideas for your book display:

Goodreads has a list of coming of age horror books. 
Tor.com comes through with a list of Five Coming of Age Horror Novels. 
Small town horror books from Bustle and from Mid-Continent Public Library.
I won't link to a list but Stephen King's backlist is filled with small town horror. 

Book Display Idea: Use a specific title: White Horse by Erika T. Wurth

White Horse is one of NoveList’s Best of the Year titles for 2022. If you are following or promoting the NoveList 2023 Reading Challenge, it fills the January prompt.  Kari James is an urban Indian, working in bars, reading Stephen King, and listening to heavy metal. She spends her free time with her cousin, Debby, and at the White Horse, an Indian bar. Abandoned by her mother while an infant, Keri is forced to look into her past as well as her family’s past when Debby gives her a bracelet that was her mother’s. The bracelet seems to bring forth visions. It’s a horror novel with heart that dives into the pain and horror in digging up the truth.

It is another title that is a compelling story of women’s friendships and relationships as are The Bandit Queen and Bad Cree. A display filled with books that center the relationships between groups of women would be a great display to use for March and Women’s History Month. The books don’t need to have one tone as families and friendships are complicated. You can look at books like The Girls from Corona del Mar by Rufi Thorpe, The Story Hour by Thirty Umrigar, and Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin for different takes on women’s relationships. This theme would also work for 

Another theme in the book is family secrets. Besides Bad Cree, there are also books like The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig, White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi, Shelter by Jung Yun, and Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng which include complex characters and families with secrets. Remember that if you are working with a them like family secrets or women’s friendships, you aren’t limited to one genre or even just fiction. Starting with a book display theme like that will make the display easier to create and keep filled. The object is to draw attention to hidden gems in your collection rather than to create a perfect display. 

Of course, White Horse is a great title to put on a display or list for a women in horror display as part of Women’s History Month in March as well as a display of Native American fiction or horror. Authors like Stephen Graham Jones, Ramona Emerson, Jessica Johns, Owl Goingback, and Daniel H. Wilson have all written recent, compelling horror novels. There are also authors like Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich, Tommy Orange, and Cherie Dimaline who have written recent books that you can check out. Remember you can check your collection for non-fiction and DVDs that can be added. 

As always, using a book like White Horse to inspire a book display or list is a great way to see what you have in your collection, both in physical and eBook form as well as what you are missing. Remember to include information about your digital collection in a physical book display as well as links to your collection. 

Other Resources:
Brightly had a list of female friendships: Ups, Downs, and Everything In-Between: 11 Great Books About Female Friendships

Goodreads has a list of books shelved as female friendship books. 

From Book Riot, 12 Female Friendship Books for Galentine’s Day. 

Books on Goodreads shelved under Family Secrets.

23 Books with Family Secrets We Still Can’t Believe on Epic Reads. 

8 Novels About Family Secrets Lurking Right Under Your Nose on Book Riot

The Horror Writers Association has a series of interview with Native American Authors.

The Seattle Public Library has a list of recent novels on their Native American Fiction list. 

Books shelved as Native American Fiction on Goodreads. 

Book Display Idea: Use a specific title- How To Sell A Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

 This month Grady Hendrix's new title, How To Sell A Haunted House, is published. He is a best selling horror author whose books have a lot of crossover appeal to readers who don't necessarily seek out horror. Even if you have a holds list for the book, you can harness his popularity to draw attention to other titles on your shelves. 

First, as always, put up signage promoting your holds list. Don't assume that everyone knows how easy it is and what the notification options are. If you have any of his titles as part of your eBook collection, add information about that as well. The purpose of a book display or online booklist is to promote your library's collection. Don't get hung up on specific titles; it's not a homework assignment. Unless you post pictures online, no one is going to grade you. Just search for subject headings and look for titles that are close enough. It's a great way to become more proficient with your searching. 

Grady has a backlist which are the easiest titles to add to a book display or book list. Most libraries have copies of: Final Girl Support Group, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, We Sold Our Souls, Paperbacks From Hell, My Best Friend's Exorcism, and Horrorstör. Remember to check your collection for large print copies and audiobooks.

Because different readers will approach the same title from different directions, there are always a variety of ways to use an individual title as the basis for a book display. A blog post or online list can include several of the themes in any one book. Haunted house is the most obvious start as it's part of the title and is also a significant plot point. There are also plenty of films about haunted houses. 

Local haunted houses, ghost stories, and creepy buildings is a way to work non-fiction into your display/list. Add books from your local collection and more general books from non-fiction. For online resources, add links to reputable sites detailing local haunts and ghost tales. Every place has some local ghost stories. You can bring in a local historian to assist with a program about local haunts if you want to tie a program to the release. Remember horror is not just for October. 

Some Florida examples of local haunts?
 Campus Haunts: The spookiest spots at UF - hosted on the University of Florida's website, this is an article about ghosts and haunted places on the University of Florida's Gainesville campus. 
Creepiest places in Florida guaranteed to haunt your dreams - A Jacksonville TV station's roadmap for a haunted tour around the Sunshine State. 
Best Florida ghost stories from Tampa's most haunted places - A Tampa news story about the most haunted places in Tampa, Florida. 

I've set up displays with "Not So Happy Home Sweet Home" on a sign and included horror titles and suspense titles. The display focused on both haunted houses and dysfunctional families. A display like that would use another aspect of How To Sell A Haunted House - dysfunctional families and sibling relationships. 

Finally we come to creepy dolls, puppets and clowns. Some people have strong feelings about these creepy subjects so be forewarned. This is a great direction to go if you want to include DVDs as there are horror films with that general subject. It's also a way to make a companion youth display. While younger readers are unlikely to pick up Grady's new book, there are plenty of juvenile fiction titles that include creepy dolls and puppets. Look for read alikes for the Goosebumps classic Night of the Living Dummy. Putting youth materials outside of the youth services department is a way to remind your patrons that you do have them in your collection. Also, many kids love spooky books. 

More resources - 

RA For All Horror: Haunted House Label - Becky Spratford's blog focusing on horror. These are posts with a haunted house label including book reviews and read alikes. 
RA For All Horror - Bonus annotations: Ghosts and Haunted Houses - with the third edition of The Readers Advisory Guide to Horror, Becky added bonus content on her blog including book suggestions. 

The Readers Advisory Guide to Horror, 3rd Edition - This series is vital for anyone who does readers' advisory, especially in genres that you don't personally read. There is a lot of great horror content including suggested titles in subgenres, podcasts, horror movies, TV shows, historical information, and key authors. 

30 Haunted House Books That Will Give You The Creeps - Book Riot's 2019 list includes some classics, modern gems, and youth titles. 

Goodreads' list of haunted house books is 1700+ titles long 

Living Dangerously: 13 Haunted House Novels: This list from the NYPL is includes because it strays from just straight horror. It shows how you can mine your backlist and get those books circulating 

The 20 best haunted house films of all time: This list from Entertainment Weekly should give you a good start if you want to add DVDs to your display or list. 

Goodreads has a 6000 + list of books with dysfunctional families. 

8 Mysteries and Thrillers About Dysfunctional Families:  Book Riot's list includes some good examples from the most popular genre. 

Home for the Holidays: Eat Together, Stay Together: The LineUp had Mother Horror, Sadie Hartmann, put together a list of family horror books. 

5 Horror Books That Are All About Family: Tor Nightfire has a 2019 list of family horror. 

Goodreads' list of Creepy Dolls books 

String Pullers: 6 Books Featuring Creepy Dolls and Puppets: A Tor Nightfire list that again shows how broad you can go when featuring a theme in a horror novel. 

Toy Story in Hell: 10 Books Featuring Creepy Dolls: Another Book Riot list that does include some youth materials.

Some Readers Advisory Sites You Can Use -for free!

 When I presented at TBLC's VIP Conference, I was asked about free alternatives if your library does not subscribe to a database like Novelist. Here are a few of my suggestions. As always, your mileage may vary and everyone has different tastes. It's not an endorsement of any of them. 

• Goodreads : While you might use it as a way to connect with other readers and to track your own reading during the year, it is also possible to use it for readers advisory. You can search for a trope like haunted house, bounty hunter, enemies to lovers and then click on Listopia. The lists created by readers will load and you can search them for the right book for your patron. It also works for other things  like Polish literature or Queer science fiction. If you spend some time searching, you can note the best lists. Also, when you log books include some notes about who else might like that book, what other books it reminded you of, and what the tone, setting, and characters were like.
• If you don't want to use Goodreads, you can find some alternatives with similar features here. 
• What Should I Read Next? allows you to input a book you or your patron liked and get recommendations. Even if the site does not have a list for you, it will give you major categories you can click on. Note that this site has better results for very popular books. 
• WhichBook has options to search by mood & emotion, world map, character & plot, or best seller. For mood & emotion, you can select up to 4 aspects and move a slide to select how happy versus sad, for example, you want the book to be. A group of covers appears and you can click on them for more information. World map brings up a map of the world, you select a region, a country, and then view a group of covers of books by authors from that country. Character & plot has options for race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and plot points. Bestsellers has a river of bestselling book covers that can be clicked on to find other options. Note that it is a UK site and if a patron clicks on borrow this book, they will be directed to a map of the UK with an option to visit Worldcat.org. 
• Meet New Books has options to enter a book, series, or topic and receive multiple recommendations. Users can also search by genre, trope, or keyword as well as ideas for breaking a reading slump or surprise recommendations. Basic mood and tone features are brought up for each title as well as a plot summary. You can see what to read after each suggestion or more titles by a particular author. 

I hope some of these are useful. Next I will provide lists of sites for particular genres and categories of books and authors.