Passively Recommending Books

  Paul Tremblay , author of The Cabin at the End of the World, has a new book out called Horror Movie. It's a cursed film horror novel centered around "The Thin Kid," the only surviving cast member of a 1993 art house horror film and a modern day remake of that film. A more complete  plot summary is available at his website. I reviewed the novel for Library Journal  where it received a star.  Because of the subject matter and setting, this title is a great basis for a book display. There are some great books about cursed films and there are plenty of iconic 1990's horror films that can be paired with the novels. Tremblay also has a Gen-X sensibility that can be drawn into your display. Put up signage about Cursed/Lost films, include a QR code so patrons can put Horror Movie on hold and promote your backlist! The Lovecraft eZine has a list of five books about cursed films.  Goodreads has a list of Lost Film & Cursed Movie books. CrimeReads has an article/list wit

The New York Times Book Review staff along with 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and others created a list of the 100 best books of the 21st century (so far). As you can imagine, this this is very heavily weighted towards "literary" fiction. The most simple way to use it is to simply take the list, see what is in your collection but could use some more attention to boost circulation and put those on a display. You can print out the information for the title that the NYT has online. Include information about where patrons can find the whole list as well as details about which of the titles are in your eBook collection.  Another way would be to also look at the read alikes they provide and to promote those titles which are in your collection, physical or digital. You can also find your own read alikes for the books. Focus on the titles which could use some help with circulation. If a title is being checked out regularly, you can skip it and move on to those whi

  Back to school starts in August with school supplies and the pending new school year appearing all over. Beyond the usual back to school, 100 days of kindergarten, and other youth materials, don't forget adult and non-traditional students. By setting up a display of adult materials on grammar, writing, basic mathematics, and other related subjects, you can remind your patrons that your library does have these books available. If you have databases with test preparation, writing help, or foreign language help include information on them as well.  August 6 is Hiroshima Day or the day the City of Hiroshima holds their Peace Memorial Ceremony to remember those lost in the atomic bombing and to pray for world peace. There are plenty of US Government sites with information for patrons. The National Park Service  and the Deparment of Energy are among them. Include some memoirs from survivors. Beyond non-fiction titles about the war, the dropping of the bomb, Imperial Japan, post-war J

  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

Because of a joke I made on Twitter, I'm reading through some authors named Brian who write horror. The first was Brian McAuley's Curse of the Reaper. I loved his novella Candy Cain Kills; I love a book with a female villain who is genuinely evil and menacing.  If you love the wild ride of a great horror film with a slasher running wild, you will also love this book. A film professor, McAuley definitely brings a cinematic feeling to his books. It's a fun book that would pair nicely with the slasher novels of the last few years. Set up a display with this book, other slasher novels, and a ton of your horror DVDs.  This would also be a great alternative to a traditional beach reads display. People read all kinds of books at the beach. They really love horror, thrillers, and suspense in the summer. I live 15 minutes from the beach in Florida and I can tell you that horror will move in the summer as a beach read.  I posted a review on Goodreads but I thought I would also post

There is one book dominating my library's holds lists, both digital and physical. That book is The Women by Kristin Hannah . This does happen periodically - hundreds and hundreds of holds pop up and it seems impossible to obtain enough copies. Hannah does have a back list but chances are most of those books are checked out with holds. So, what do you do? Create a book display with read alikes, advertising your holds list as well as helping patrons waiting for that hot title find something that they will love to read.  The book is about a nursing student who follows her brother to Vietnam by joining the Army Nurse Corps and finds herself unprepared both for the brutality of the war and the unrest and upheaval when she returns to the United States. This offers many ways to find read alikes.  You can use: historical fiction  Vietnam era fiction  Books about nurses Books about siblings Fiction that is centered on women's stories Books about returning home Non-fiction about nursing

As I have mentioned before, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel when it comes to book displays or finding ideas. Both Booklist and Library Journal regularly have ideas you can borrow and reshape to fit your own library's needs. While it may not be up to you if your library subscribes or not to either or both, even the headline of an article can help you with book display ideas.  Library Journal has a feature called Display Shelf on their website. Often curated by Editor Melissa DeWild, these shelves are a great way to get ideas about what kind of fiction and non-fiction displays your library can put up. Don't feel pressure to include every book they have up; use the idea as a jumping off point and search your own collection for titles that will work.  Booklist has articles on Essential reads in a particular subgenre or subject. There are also trend alerts which include books with subjects like Love & Sports . Even if you don't subscribe, you can be inspired by