5 Book Challenge

As I mentioned last post, I have embarked on a concentrated reading plan, following Joyce Saricks "5 Book Challenge" in her book The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. While I sat in that workshop last Saturday with Shelley Quezada, I realized that although I pride myself on being a lifelong voracious reader, I'm like a kid in a candy shop when it comes to books. I have no real plan, no real purpose (which is fine, it's served me well all these years) but if I want to be a Reader's Advisor, I have to be more deliberate in my reading. And I have to start keeping records.

In the past, I've gobbled up books hand over fist, forgetting about the one I've just finished before I'm done chewing the last bite, eyes searching for the next. Generally I don't remember authors or titles, though occasionally I'll get a little frisson of recognition.

Recently I read Will Manley's column "Smoky the Cowhorse" in the May 1 2005 issue of Booklist. He mentioned the 2004 report "Reading at Risk: A survey of Literary Reading in America" issued by the National Endowment for the Arts. In the very broadest of terms, Manley asserts that we are "a plugged-in people," and that very few of us read books. He cites his friend Fred as an example of the rare un-plugged person who has read widely, including The Ilead and The Odyssey and the entire list of Newbery winners. Manley mentions that Fred has read 1927 Newbery Award Winner Smoky the Cowhorse and asks "do you know anyone who has read Smoky the Cowhorse from cover to cover?"

Well, let me be the first to tell you...I have read Smoky the Cowhorse from cover to cover, and I distinctly remember being very proud of myself at the time. Of course I was in fifth grade back then, and if I remember correctly I tried to convince my teacher that Smoky was a biography of a horse and therefor qualified for the biography book report. I don't remember if I succeeded or not, but I do remember that as a horse-crazy girl I ranked the book with My Friend Flicka and Black Beauty on the horse book must-read list. It doesn't seem possible that Will Manley's friend Fred and I are the only two people alive who have read it. Have you read any of the Newbery Award winners? Check this list to find out. You might surprise yourself.

I work in the Children's Room at my library once a week, so last year I did start reading on a plan...I decided to read all of the Newbery Award books. I'm not done yet, but I have knocked off quite a few of the more recent ones. I'm putting that on hold though, in favor of Joyce Saricks 5 Book Challenge for Genre Reading. Starting at the top of the list with the Adventure Genre, I'm reading:

Clive Cussler Atlantis Found
Dorothy Dunnett Game of Kings
W.E.B. Griffin Danger's Path
Patrick O'Brien Master and Commander
Wilbur Smith Birds of Prey

I finished Atlantis Found last night. My husband, a huge Clive Cussler fan, was thrilled that I had finely succumbed to the charms of Dirk Pitt. I have started annotating what I read, here's Dirk's annotation.

Reader's Advisory

I went to an absolutely excellent workshop on Saturday. It was put on by Simmons College GSLIS Continuing Ed, taught by Shelley Quezada.

Reader's Advisory is that craft by which librarians, using their experience and expertise in Genre Fiction (and NonFiction) and electronic and text tools, guide readers in selecting books to read according to their interests and preference. Which is a long and complicated way of saying "helping people find books to read." The most exciting part of this is that with the proper study and tools, a librarian can guide readers toward books she hasn't read herself and would prefer not to.

Shelley's enthusiasm was contagious, and I left the workshop with a tremendous amount of material to go over and use in building my own Reader's Advisor skills. One of the handouts was a list of 5 books in each of 15 genres, suggested by Joyce Saricks (author of Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library) as a challenge to familiarize ourselves with each genre.

Which is why the next book I'll be mentioning here is Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler.