Have you ever asked yourself the question “ What will I read next?” Maybe you have exhausted the works of a particular author, or just looking for something different. The staff at the Chatham Area Public Library hears this all the time. Not surprisingly, there are many ways to investigate the vast number of options available to you
A great place to start is in the Reference section of the Library. Many of the works there can be browsed quickly for ideas. Titles include Genreflecting: A Guide to Popular Reading Interests. This work provides descriptions of the different categories of fiction along with the sub-categories and themes that fall under each. To peruse the titles and authors that fall into those genres, there are several encyclopedic volumes to discover. These include The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery, The Encyclopedia of American Biography, The Encyclopedia of Allegorical Literature, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, and The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. Also in Reference, Recommended Reading: 500 Classics Reviewed by the editors of Salem Press will guide you through the great works of the past. Read It and Eat It: A Month by Month Guide to Scintillating Book Club Selections and Mouth Watering Menus describes itself. For younger folks, Nonfiction Classics for Students contains analysis, context, and criticism of non-fiction works. 100 World Class Thin Books: Or, What to Read When Your Book Report is Due Tomorrow, by Joni Richards Bodart is the book we all should have had at one time.
There are many other places to get ideas also. Books of the Century: A Hundred Years of Authors, Ideas, and Literature From the New York Times contains book reviews and essays from 1897 to1997. 100 One-Night Reads: A Book Lovers Guide by David C. Major and John S. Major contains brief descriptions of a hundred books from many categories of fiction and non-fiction that can be consumed in a single evening. For some ideas for books for the kids, try Great Books About Things Kids Love: More Than 750 Recommended Books for Children 3 to 14 by Kathleen Oden. Also, there is The New York Times Parent’s Guide to the Best Books for Children. In You’ve Got to Read This Book: 55 People Tell the Story of the Book That Changed Their Life, notable people describe the works that inspired them.
Back in the Reference section, there is a collection of volumes entitled What Do I Read Next: A Readers Guide to Current Genre Fiction. These volumes provide a short summary of fiction books that were published in each year from 1991 to 2006. Along with lists of other books from the authors, there are suggestions for other similar books to try, all thoroughly indexed. The Library also subscribes to an online database called NoveList. This database provides author read-alikes, book reviews, and recommended reads for adults, teens, and children, as well as dozens of other services that can be explored by taking the tour of the site. It is accessible from the Library’s home page, www.chatham.lib.il.us. It can be used from home or at the Library and is one of the best tools for researching everything fiction. Of course, you could always just show up at the Library and browse.
