Training Wrap Up

     I really enjoyed this training program. First of all, being an extremely introverted person, I liked the set up and process of everything and the ability to work on this, for the most part, alone. Which allowed me to absorb all of this information and process it the way that I need to. Not to say that I didn't interact with anyone throughout the entire program because I frequently had conversations with co-workers and people outside of work on several of the topics.
   
      Second, I learned a lot. I discovered why Goodreads is so amazing, the different types of sub-genres, how people feel about young adult novels (and adults reading them), and how to do RA for nonfiction, etc. Goodreads is a great resource for finding what to read next and its also a great way to connect with other book lovers. Also, I knew that there were sub-genre's, of course, but I had no idea that there were so many different types! The young adult/ new adult subject has been a topic of discussion between my sister and I for a long time, so I thought it was interesting to read more about it and even to discuss it with others.

      Lastly, all of the new resources and ideas for RA are really helpful and I am glad that I got to learn about them this way. I think that they are important for librarians and for others who are extensive readers. So, not only are these sites extremely helpful in RA and personally, but I can also pass them on to others to use. I'm still not a huge fan of book trailers, but they could be a helpful tool in RA.

Week 9: Book Trailers

I find book trailers to be very strange and I'm not exactly sure why. They don't really pull me in to wanting to read something and I have never picked up a book because of a  book trailer. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that they are terrible, which Nina Metz points out. She also brings up that they shouldn't be terrible, especially because the internet is an important resource for readers and that's where they would find them.

I think book trailers were meant to be a great and valuable resource for readers and I think that they still could be. It's possible that some people love book trailers and that's how they find all of the books on their TBR list, but I also think that the book trailer industry is failing miserably in attracting more people to books, in this way. I like the idea of the author presenting the book and why they wrote it, but I think that if it's not done in a exciting, story-telling way, that it may bore and lose the interest of the audience. I also like the idea of a book trailer like a movie preview, but again this could be tacky and terrible and might lose the interests of people, if not done right.

Book trailers could be useful in readers advisory. Like in an educational setting, someone might need to see the movie version of Romeo and Juliet, but some one else is just fine with reading it- I think book trailers could work in a similar way. Some people can just read the little blurb on the back of the book and decide that its the book that they want, but others might want a visual representation or deeper explanation (without all of the important details given away) of a book before they decide.

Week 8: Non-Fiction

Narrative nonfiction (literary nonfiction/ creative nonfiction) is all about telling a good story, that comes from real life. The details and the settings are not created, they are, at least, based on something real and true. People may not always know what they are looking for and in the end they might enjoy reading a nonfiction. Just like the fiction genre, with it's many sub-genre's, nonfiction too has it's many sub-categories and many of them are parallel. For example, mysteries and true crime.

I would recommend the following to someone who usually doesn't read non-fiction titles:

1. Sports 790's - Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (796.522 Rec/ Outdoor Sports) I would have put this title in adventure or travel, but activities such as hiking or backpacking, may fit into this tiny category in sports.
2. Medical 610's - The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett (614.4)
3. History 900's - Hiroshima by John Hersey (940.54)
4. Crime  360's - In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (364.152)

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

"With enough determination, any bloody idiot can get up this hill. The trick is getting back down alive"(Rob Hall, Krakauer's guide). And that is something the entire crew and everyone else, on Mount Everest, would experience on what was considered the deadliest day and year (until 2014, and then 2015) on the tallest mountain in the world. Into Thin Air will bring into view the decision that brought Jon Kraukauer, the author, to climb to the tallest peak in the world and the devastating storm that will challenge everyone to get down the mountain before it's too late.

For other true stories by Krakauer, check out Into the Wild and Under the Banner of Heaven. Also, check out Anatoli Boukreev's account as a guide from another team during the disaster in The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest and the film adaptation of various view points, Everest.

Hiroshima by John Hersey

The atomic bomb that was dropped, in 1945, on the city of Hiroshima, Japan, killed and injured thousands of people. Hiroshima by John Hersey, is a story of six people who survived the bombing. Starting with their normal day, then to experiencing the bomb, and to how they were affected and their reactions to the bomb, the very real characters in this story paint a picture of how the atomic bomb changed their lives forever. Hersey's publication started an uproar and realization of the impact that the atomic bomb made and could make in the future. Many questioned the decision to drop the bomb and the long lasting affects of nuclear radiation caused by such weapons, after reading this book.