Friday, October 13, 2006
Readalikes
When a patron comes to the information desk and asks me for a book “like” another author's, I have an easy trick that I use. Even if I don’t read a particular author, I can still make a good guess about who's books might be similar, by Googling.
Reader’s advisory is a big part of what librarians do, and we love our favorite authors. Chances are, a librarian has scouted out the territory before you have and posted a list of similar titles on the web. Librarians have a “slang” term for this kind of readers advisory, or professional jargon if you prefer. It is called a “readalike”.
So this is what you do: You go to any search engine and type in your author’s name and the word “readalike.” You might want to put quotations around the name if parts of it are common. There aren’t many Grishams, but probably a lot of Kings in the world, and even in publishing. But the term readalikes is specialized enough that it will probably weed out false hits.
The Portage District Library’s own “readalikes” pages are called "If you Like..." and are organized by author or genre/subject.
Reader’s advisory is a big part of what librarians do, and we love our favorite authors. Chances are, a librarian has scouted out the territory before you have and posted a list of similar titles on the web. Librarians have a “slang” term for this kind of readers advisory, or professional jargon if you prefer. It is called a “readalike”.
So this is what you do: You go to any search engine and type in your author’s name and the word “readalike.” You might want to put quotations around the name if parts of it are common. There aren’t many Grishams, but probably a lot of Kings in the world, and even in publishing. But the term readalikes is specialized enough that it will probably weed out false hits.
The Portage District Library’s own “readalikes” pages are called "If you Like..." and are organized by author or genre/subject.
