Off the Chain: Readers’ Advisory for Exploding Genres

Sometimes I like to venture into the unknown. Being mostly a nonfiction selector and reader, I attended Off the Chain: Readers’ Advisory for Exploding Genres with speaker David Wright of the Seattle Public Library. I was uncertain what “exploding genres” were, but I knew they had to be something new. I was not disappointed.

David (he seems like someone who would let me use his first name) showed us via slides the books and authors that he recommends for attracting twenty-something readers. He focused on edgy fiction, cult authors, urban fiction and graphic novels. There were many names I did not know among the ones that I did. I am going to have look these people up:

Charles Bukowski
Mark Danielewski
Haruki Marakami
Kelly Link
Douglas Coupland
Bret Easton Ellis
Chuck Palahniuk
Iceberg Slim
David Goines
Vickie Stringer
Zane

I should also look at The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction, the magazine Believer, and the website Library Thing as readers’ advisory resources.

A slide show of book recommendations can be pretty dull, but David had us laughing with his inclusion of funny images and sly comments. He’d be a good person to have on your team when planning presentations.

Two of the authors listed above were actually on the platform with David, fielding questions about their work and how authors and libraries can work together. The first was Zane, who write popular erotica. She started writing her stories on the web several years ago and people kept asking for her books. She started her own small press, which has thrived and she is now publishing other writers as well. Her books may appeal mostly to women, as the woman taking charge of her life is a recurring theme in her writing, but she does get a lot of fan mail from men. She said that her books have not been for underage readers, but she is now starting a teen series to be published in 2008.

The other author on the platform was Kelly Link, who with her husband started Small Beer Press. She had interest in short stories and graphic novels that has moved into longer works. She advised watching litblogs to see what is new in fiction that attracts younger adult readers. She said authors with blogs often name other writers to read.

Some interesting questions came from the audience. The one that got the most reaction was how a library should deal with novels that are constantly stolen. The consensus was that libraries should continue to buy them, as they are obviously drawing readers to the library and they are the books that speak to some readers. The replacing of books is just a cost of our business.

It is also our business in public libraries to be collecting for all age groups, even when it requires buying some edgy, controversial items.