Passively Recommending Books

  Of course there are a number of holidays this month. Please don't neglect to put up a winter/snow sort of display to balance things out for those who don't celebrate Christmas. There are a number of romance and horror titles which focus on winter and snow. Mysteries, particularly those by Scandinavian authors (Scandi Noir) are also good options if you are looking for fiction.  Consider knitting, winter decor, and travel narratives from wintery places. There are plenty of wintery DVDs which could be added as well.  Beyond Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanza, there is Yule and Winter Solstice to consider. Set up displays of paranormal romance, occult horror, urban fantasy, and non-fiction books about wicca, the occult, and related subjects.  In 1997, the show Seinfeld introduced Festivus to everyone. Do you have books that are based around complaints? Titles that you think various Seinfeld characters would love? Use your imagination and even set up a Festivus pole! December 1 is ce

  So, it's October and you want a book display that isn't horror? Here are some ideas that you can use.  You could always go horror - adjacent and do a true crime or horrible history display with your non-fiction. If you pick the best readable, narrative non-fiction and put it near your fiction stacks, there are books that will get checked out. This is a display that will flow into your horror book displays and lists.  Remember that you can be funny and refuse to fall into anything! Put up a display of beachy, coastal romance and fiction. Put up a sign with a flip flop and proudly demonstrate your refusal to give up summer. There are plenty of books with beaches on the front that you can use. You could tie it into a coast/ocean horror display with books like Daniel Kraus' Whalefall.  Mean Girls Day was October 3 but a book display of the books you think that the characters from the movie would like and books that fans of the movie might enjoy would also be fun.  Other holid

  As we are about to enter spooky season, I thought I would put up a quick post about using one of this season's most anticipated horror titles, What Kind of Mother by Clay McLeod Chapman. The idea is to show how you can assemble these book displays in a variety of ways. Books can become book friends by pairing them together using different approaches. There isn't one answer.   This book is about parental grief, hometowns, and being haunted by the past. It's also a southern gothic folk horror book with a healthy dose of body horror. The sense of dread and overall creepiness builds as book progresses. Fans of domestic suspense who are open to some horror will love this book.  The plot? From the publisher's ( Quirk Books ) website :  After striking out on her own as a teen mom, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing to her name, she scrapes together a living as a palm reader at the local f

The New England Library Association Conference 2021 has Diversity Day today. I have the pleasure of presenting with Andria L. Amaral of the Charleston County Public Library and Paula Willey of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Our session is titled Promoting Inclusion and Empathy with Passive Programming. Their book, The Passive Programming Playbook: 101 Ways to Get Library Customers off the Sidelines, is a great addition to anyone's professional collection and is especially relevant today.  The slideshow is below in case you missed it. 

As part of the Horror Writers of America 's StokerCon Librarian's Day, I am moderating a panel on promoting horror in libraries. I have posted some of the displays I have done which include horror. Don't forget that you can include horror titles in almost any book display.  Don't get stuck in the box of only promoting horror in October. Don't strictly segregate genres because your patrons don't care as much as you think they do. (One huge exception is romance readers - romance has a happier ever after ending.) One final tip is this- book displays in libraries are not a school project. The objective is to get materials into the hands of your patrons. Be broad with genre and theme. You don't have to be exacting as far as which titles you include as long as it's not a genre or subgenre specific display. Even then, I use the broadest possible definition.  This display was easy to fit horror into. It's "Get Possessed by a Book". Include non-fict

Suggestions for what to read while you wait for those holds on the Witcher books or are done binging the series. Dark fantasies or books with similar main characters are what you should look for. Search for "read likes for..." when you want to put up a display based upon whatever the most popular show on the streaming services is. 

Someone else at my library put up this display. The idea is cute - books with shoes on the cover or in the title. These sort of themes help people stumble on back list titles they may have missed. It can be tricky to fill in if you don't have ideas when you set it up. There are clearly tons of ways you could change this to suit your library's collection. Add non-fiction if you need to and grab some history of fashion or fashion books. I would even put books from health about podiatry in it!

Another librarian put together this book display with library themed romances. Be as broad as possible when setting up this sort of display. If a book has a librarian in it or library scene, it is enough. Romance is a genre rich with tropes so you can assemble a display that fits your collection or those titles that need some patron attention.  Alter the text on the sign and a quick and easy cozy mystery display could be put up with the same theme. 

When Things Go Wrong book display with titles about disasters including some local/state titles. I borrowed this idea from ALA's Booklist. They have lists that are great jumping off points. This display could include fiction from any and all genres including horror, suspense, and thrillers.

People were thinking about the 20’s at the beginning of 2020 so I obliged them with a book display . First things to be taken from this display were books about fashion. In theory, you could put this up every year until 2030.  Pay at least some attention to what is bouncing around in popular culture; you can mine it for ideas for easy book displays that let you faceout backlist lonely books. 

This is another easy book display that staff created. The titles will be familiar to your patrons, even if they are not readers. Sometimes patrons won't even realize that a popular movie was based upon a book. You can pair the books with DVD copies of the film if you have it. It's also a good idea to include a list of books and films that are in your collection, both digital and physical. 

This display was put together by staff. It's fairly easy to both assemble and keep filled. One benefit is that it's a super easy way to put books in faceout that may have been overlooked. Faceouts are magical; they can help get books checked out that have sat, unloved and ignored, for years. They can be composed of any kind of material in your building so don't limit yourself.  When the "color of the year" is announced, it's a good time to try to find books that match that theme, both in color cover as well as title. Another idea for this sort of display include your local sports teams' colors - professional, college, or K-12. You could also use colors tied to a particular holiday if you wanted something super easy to throw up.