University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

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Life gets a little less hectic as the academic year winds down and soon the hammock will beckon us to snuggle in with some light reading. During the next couple of months, newspapers and radio shows will provide a smorgasbord of recommended “beach reads.” If you’re eager to get started, you might consider investigating reader’s advisory lists featured by public libraries and other sources that promote leisure reading.

Librarybooklist.org pulls together a compendium of such lists and there is something for every reading passion. For example, click on the adult fiction link and take delight in the many types of fiction to choose from, including:

• Standards such as “chick lit,” “family sagas,” “great books and classics,” “historical fiction,” “horror and gothic fiction,” “speculative fiction,” “sports fiction” and “westerns.”

• More unusual fictional topics, such as “archaeology,” “culinary fiction,” “eco-fiction,” “financial, money, business and math fiction,” “music,” “street lit” and “visual arts.”

• Truly useful recommendations, such as “based on the book,” “gentle reads,” “non-fiction that reads like fiction,” ”read-alike fiction“ and “series and sequels.”

The site is especially wide-ranging in categorizing crime novels and mysteries. Sample sub-genres include “courtroom dramas,” “mysteries featuring animals,” “humorous mysteries,” “police and private eyes” and “travel and place in mysteries.” M. Williams, the compiler of Librarybooklist.org, also includes her own original crime and mysteries lists: “Drama in Crime Fiction,” “Golf in Crime Fiction,” “Murder by Toaster: Unusual and Unlikely Murder Weapons” and “Nazi Art Theft in Crime Fiction.”

Libraybooklist.org has a companion blog entitled Worth Reading. Of particular note is the entry Readers Advisory 2.0. Here you will find a listing of social networking tools for avid readers under the headings “Social Libraries,” “Book Blogs and Wikis” and “Movable Book Groups.” This list has its genesis in a subject thread in the Morton Grove, Ill., Public Library’s discussion list Fiction-L, which has a Web site worthy of a visit for such booklists as “Books with Tortured Heroes,” “Creeps: Psychologically Creepy Books,” “If you like CSI you might like…” “Musical Band Books,” “Taking Liberties: The Novel Lives of Famous People” and many more.

Seattle-based librarian and author of the Book Lust series, Nancy Pearl is always a wonderful source of suggestions of books to read. An NPR Morning Edition commentator, she has recommended many books, including those that that are “Under the Radar” and those that are “Carry-On” worthy. Finally, who can resist her suggestions that carry the warning “Caution: These Books May Make You Skip Work?”

Happy reading everyone!

—Gemma DeVinney, University Libraries