Online Reader Tools

This week is going to be fun! fun! fun! In case I have never recommended GoodReads to you, consider this your recommendation. I LOVE GoodReads! However, I would never have found it if it wasn't for my first manager here at LFPL (Thanks Charlton!). GoodReads helps me keep track of my booklife. Several of my friends went back and added all of the books, or as many as they could remember, from their childhood. I honestly can not remember back that far! Today, I blame baby brain for this, however, I had a GoodReads account long before the child arrived so I can't blame him for everything....

So GoodReads! Go there. It's fabulous. You can add authors as friends and see what they are reading along with keeping up with their blogs. I have actually corresponded with Allan Stratton after I read his book Chandra's Secrets. He's asked me about how I was doing in library school and if I was home from UK (bless his heart, he's obviously not from Kentucky! Had to explain that no, I was unfortunately never in England, only Lexington. Should have looked into the distance learning program over there..). Besides getting to know authors, you get to keep track of books you have read, want to read, and currently reading. I have recently joined NetGalley and get to read e-galleys of books before they are published. I then review them on GoodReads for the publisher. See- look at all the places GoodReads can take you. :)

For this exercise, I had to recommend a book to Joe Patron. Joe and I are only starting to get to know each other but from the little I know about him, he is a HUGE fan of paranormal romances. (he has that glint in his eye!). One of my favorite takes on the vampire genre is Meg Cabot's Insatiable. Joe hadn't read it yet, so I thought he should check it out. It's a good one! And there are more to come in that series. You can thank me later Joe.

Because I am not signed up for enough emails that tell me about books, I signed up for more through LFPL. I should have only signed up for 1, but I think I signed up for like 5. I signed up for BookSizzle, Children's Chapter Books, Children's Picture Books, Fiction Best Sellers, New Fiction, and TeenScene. And that is 6, not 5. Who's counting?

I honestly did not know LFPL offered these. I receive newsletters about books from Library Journal and several of the publishers. For me, receiving the newsletters about what is coming out is super helpful to me for readers' advisory. I am never going to read everything that is out there but I can at least attempt to be educated in as many areas as possible. I find myself doing readers' advisory for all age groups so it behooves me to know about a broad selection of books.

NoveList - At one point during one of our book club meetings, I pulled this up to look at something. One of the ladies was in awe of it and wanted to know how I had access to it. (I love my book club ladies!) Who knew NoveList could make you look cool? :)

For my search in NoveList, I used criteria for books for our summer reading promotions. We are attempting to figure out what we are going to use for stories, props, etc., for when we go into the schools. My initial search criteria was ages 0-8 using make believe and then magic, as topics. I started looking at the popularity of the books for more inspiration. I chose The Curious Garden as my first book choice. To continue my search, I selected picture books for children and transformations. There are some great choices on there! I tend to use Fantastic Fiction more when I am doing readers' advisory, but now that I have played more with NoveList, I think this will be just as good of a resource. This will be great for me as well when planning for storytime. Thanks 23Things!

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