Want a book review?

People are always asking us about books that are on our shelves and whether or not the book is good.  Many times, one of the staff has either read the book or that particular author, so we can give an opinion, but not always.  Our own library catalog offers a bit of a blurb on each new book that we enter into our system, but what if you want to know a bit more about a book?

I came across a site that offers book reviews, done often by professional book reviewers as well as just avid readers,  and has detailed information about authors, even offering interviews done with authors through the years.  The site is called Mostly Fiction Book Reviews and you can stop by to see if a book you’ve been wanting to read is really as good as you hoped.

You can find book awards lists, suggestions for kids, award winners  as well as many other ways to search the site.  It isn’t a flashy site and you might not find what you want, but it is worth a look if you are serious about reading reviews before reading a book.

A book and a comment

Everyday, we have patrons come into the library and either tell us how much they loved a book they’d just read, or how much they loathed it. Last week, one of our patrons came in, threw her bag of books on the desk and started complaining about how every book that she had taken home the week before was just ridiculous. Now, wouldn’t it be nice to know this before taking home a book?

Book reviews can be found in many places…..magazines, newspapers, television, online etc. And often, people will choose a book based on a review they heard somewhere. But wouldn’t it be nice if the reviewer was someone who shared similar experiences and lifestyle? Maybe the book I enjoy is not the book that someone living in a huge city would enjoy. Maybe experiences and lifestyle really do influence the ways in which we react to literature. And the idea of an instant review, one that you could see while you were browsing through the books at the library, might make for a new way to choose your weekly reads.

So, wouldn’t it be interesting if someone could read a book from the library and be able note their comments on the book right there, as sort of a personal book review? I don’t think we’d want someone to actually write in the book (this is HIGHLY frowned upon at the library!), but to have a way in which we could rate a book that would either fit into the book itself or the catalogue record. This is probably something that will happen in the distant future where patrons will be able to record their thoughts on a book, for other patrons to read. I know that I’d enjoy seeing what someone else thought of a book before I actually checked it out of the library. It might make me think twice if several readers from our library thought it could be passed over.

Could this be something applied to our library catalogue? Sort of an interactive online database where you could look up a book in the library and read reviews from other patrons right there. I think that could be an interesting feature that readers could benefit from. You could check a book out, read it and then log in and record your thoughts into the database so that anyone searching for that book in our library could read the review. Maybe just a star-rating system? Who knows.

Do you think you’d benefit from being able to read reviews right on the catalogue database? Would you write your own reviews?

Genealogy and great reads!

Some of you may have noticed that we have a few new additions to our blog. I want to welcome Shirley and Lillian, two of my co-workers who will be regularly contributing their unique projects to our blog!

First, Shirley is now writing a few pages on our local history and her favourite genealogy websites. She has put together a list of sites that will help a budding genealogist right up to a very experienced researcher. (Check out her tips……she has some fabulous ideas to help make your search easier.) Please pop by her pages called “Genealogy” and “Local History”, located in the right hand column of this page.

And the newest addition to our library family, Lillian, will be adding her trademark wit and vast knowledge of books to a column called “So many books, so little time”, also on the left hand side of this page. In her first page, she gives readers an idea of the types of books she’ll be reviewing, and you get to know a little about her from this great introduction.

So…..keep watching for new and interesting columns and pages being added to our blog!

New Review!

Don’t forget…we’ll be posting reviews of new books (or just books we have enjoyed!) on our blog from time to time. The latest review is for Remember Me, by Sophie Kinsella, reviewed by Heidi. Please see the link on the right side of this page called “Our Picks”.

You’ll love this book!

Starting today, we’ll be posting a book review every few weeks by someone who works right here in the library. Each of us reads different types of books, and so often people ask us to recommend something we’ve enjoyed, so this is the place we’ll do it. Over on the right, there is a page called “Our picks”. Check it out from time to time to see what one of us just read and loved (or hated!). All of the books that we’ll recommend will be available in our library, so come in and ask for something that sounds interesting.

Our first review is from Shirley. Her book pick is “The Birth House, by Ami McKay”. Thanks Shirley!