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

Theme to Explore - Blending Genre in Book Displays

 Setting aside any libraryland debates about genre spine labels, genre filing on the shelf versus interfiling and so forth, I thought I would talk about how to use books which cross several genres or are genre blended as a theme for an online list or book display. Many books have crossover appeal. You can use this to gently suggest to your readers that there are books outside their usual lanes that they will enjoy and perhaps create another entire world of books for that patron to explore. 

The easiest option is to do a "If you liked this... Try this" book display/list. You can go outside of the usual similar titles in the same genre and instead match up a memoir or biography with a fiction title. Pick someone who lived in the same era or a biography with a fictional depiction of that person. A recent idea from the news and popular culture would be a novel about the British royal family with a biography of a British royal. Pair a book like Children of Chicago by Cynthia Pelayo with non-fiction books about Chicago, Chicago travel books, and DVDs about Chicago. 

The Chicago Public Library has a convenient list of fiction set in Chicago. 

This is a simple version of blending genres in a book display - pick a setting or character and grab materials from your location, regardless of genre of type. 

Another option using Children of Chicago?  It's also a police procedural so look for romantic suspense, mysteries, thrillers, historical fiction which are also police procedurals in part. There are plenty of titles in other genres which focus on a single police detective. Try adding them to a display. The fact that some are romantic suspense while others are historical mysteries shouldn't matter. Let your patrons explore and trust their curiosity. 

The truth is that while it was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for best novel, Children of Chicago is not only a horror novel. As was mentioned before it's a police procedural, urban fantasy, modern fairy tale, and serial killer thriller. There are plenty of books in your collection which share these descriptions. Gather them up and put them on a display. 

You can use this sort of display to introduce patrons to the idea of genre blending in novels. Use a picture of a blender on a sign and put up materials from your collection that cross genres. Romance fans are already familiar with this idea due to the proliferation of subgenres in romance  - romantic suspense, historical romance, inspirational romance and so forth. There are also mysteries which are also historical fiction, horror which is also comedic, and science fiction which has elements from thrillers blended in. 

One theme you can use is literary fiction/genre fiction. There are plenty of titles which combine aspects of literary fiction including complex language and a character driven plot. Literary fiction giants like Colson Whitehead (Zone One) have written horror while horror authors like Stephen Graham Jones and Andy Davidson would definitely appeal to literary fiction lovers.
 
While examples of literary genre fiction in all genres can be found, I would caution you that romance readers do expect a central love story and a happy (at least for now) ending. Books that have romantic elements could be called love stories on a display or list. 

Below I have some lists and articles that should help you in your exploration of genre blending and blended genres. Use them as a start to introduce your patrons to books outside their usual reads!

More resources: 

Goodreads has a list of genre blending fiction. 
Books shelfed on Goodreads as Literary Romance.
More from Goodreads with Best Literary Mysteries
Bookriot has several lists: genre-blending literary fiction, genre-blending historical fiction,      redefining romance in literary fiction, best literary mystery
ALA Publishing published The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Blends. 
This article from Writer's Digest talks about cross pollination which would be a cute theme for a genre blending display. 
Tor.com has Five Genre-Blending Young Adult Books. 
Five Books in Which Unexpected Romance Sneaks Up On You from The Atlantic
The Millions has The Case for Genre Fiction: A Guide to Literary Science Fiction and Fantasy

Women in Horror Month!

 

February is Women in Horror Month. This is a great time to bring your library's horror out for a non-Halloween display. Again, I guarantee you that it will circulate all year. 

Be broad and include non-fiction works like true crime if you need to. You can also grab some psychological suspense as there is a lot of crossover fans. 

On the sign, I included the URL for the official Women in Horror Month website as well as RA for All - Horror, a great resource for any library worker looking to get more information about horror. 

The Horror Writers of America have a great blog with information about diverse authors. Authors' groups are very supportive of libraries and are a wonderful resource. 

Mother Horror - Sadie Hartman is a horror reviewer and part owner of Night Worms Horror Book Box subscription service. Check out her Twitter and Instagram for more ideas. 

Putting out genres like horror in February when your patrons might be expecting something else will draw their attention. There are so many great horror novels written by women. Use this month to celebrate them. 

Don't forget to check out Horror Noire on Shudder, produced by author Tananarive Due. 

New Year Book Display Ideas

 

I have never liked "New Year, New You" book displays. Self improvement does not need to have an implicit or explicit aura of self-hatred. Save the diet books and exercise videos for another day. 

Instead, focus on showing patrons how they can "____ something new." They can learn something new, eat something new, make something new! It's a way to showcase some of your non-fiction collection that needs more exposure as well as helping them find something new to focus on. I have some pictures here that showcase a few of the displays I have done in the past. 

Think broadly and involve staff from all over your library. Don't forget to include materials from your audiobook and DVD collections. You can even include images and handouts from your ebook collections or databases. 

This idea would also work for youth services book displays. There is a gap in-between the holidays and the start of school. You could encourage some learning and crafting from kids who otherwise might be getting a little stir crazy. 
It would also serve patrons who don't celebrate those particular winter holidays. 

More ideas can be found in this list of New Year's Resolutions. Steal the heading of the list and customize the titles to fit what you have in your collection. Check your inbox for ideas from publishers this year. 

NPR's article has a great book display idea. Just switch it up a bit - "Find Joy with a New Hobby." Then shift to other ways that your patrons could find joy. This is another way to frame the same idea. 

If you want to showcase some fiction, encourage your patrons to "Meet Someone New" by setting up a display with under loved series fiction. Another angle of this is to search out that translated fiction that might not get enough attention. Don't forget to double check your display for diverse characters and authors. 

Finally, I often have included a "Visit Somewhere New" display with travel and travel narratives. Since we don't know when that will happen again, add fiction with a focus on place to those travel narratives. One option is Akashic Press' Noir Series. 

Other options include: 

Ten Books Where the Setting is a Character/Crime Reads

9 Young Adult Books Where the Settings Are Characters/Bustle 

Top 10 World Building Fantasy Novels/Chicago Public Library 

8 Speculative Fiction Authors Whose Books Are a Lesson in Worldbuilding/Barnes and Noble

What are you going to do for your January book displays? 

The Shoes Made the Book

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!

Books from the Bottom Shelf

As I have said before, faceouts are magical. These are simply a variety of titles that need a circulation boost. I have put up this display with a sign that simply had a sleepy puppy on it. Just being in front of your patrons' eyes can help them get the sort of attention they need. 

Roaring Twenties Book Display

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. 

"These Books Blue Us Away" - Color Themed Book Display

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.