What's a nice fiction readers' advisor like you doing in a nonfiction place like this?
Feel ever so slightly out of your element when a reader answers your questions about their reading preferences with nonfiction authors or titles? Wish that you felt as comfortable recommending nonfiction titles as you do fiction titles or genres? Our readers' advisory skills and techniques may have come a long way in the past few years, but for the most part, they have developed around the assumption that only fiction readers need assistance, recommendations, and enthusiasm.
Joyce Saricks has referred to nonfiction as "the poor stepsister in libraries dominated by fiction and service to fiction readers" [Burgin, Nonfiction Readers' Advisory, Libraries Unlimited, 2005], but it doesn't have to be that way. For the most part, techniques that work when engaging readers in conversations about fiction will also work for nonfiction. A few more "tricks of the trade" I've found useful include:
1. Read! Read! Read!
Okay, I'll admit I stole this one from Cynthia Orr's "RA Golden Rules for Readers' Advisory" as outlined in the June 2005 issue of RA News. But it's as solid a piece of advice as you'll find. No one expects you to read everything, particularly when you add nonfiction to the mix. But just as it is unacceptable to refuse RA service because you "haven't read in that genre," it is also unacceptable not to read in a wide variety of genres, including nonfiction genres and subject areas. Bestseller lists, book review sources, blogs, and your colleagues all exist to provide you with starting points for your nonfiction reading. A particularly rich source of short nonfiction samples are the short pieces of investigative journalism in magazines such as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, or The Atlantic Monthly; many of their authors also write nonfiction books.
2. Don't be afraid to start your thinking in terms of subject matter.
Don't be afraid to use subject organization to offer readers books on topics similar to ones they've been reading about. Nonfiction readers are often insatiably curious and might enjoy related as well as similar reads; while fans of Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun might indeed enjoy other travel memoirs, they might also want to discover more about the history and lore of the Tuscan region. Likewise, fans of military fiction might enjoy nonfiction military histories describing the same periods of history or conflicts, while those who enjoy spy and espionage thrillers might also consider nonfiction histories and biographies of infamous real-life spies and operatives.
3. Think beyond the subject matter.
Your first line of defense in finding related nonfiction reads may well be your library catalog, or even a quick glance at the area of the Dewey or LC subject area from where a patron originally chose a book. However, just as readers of Anne Tyler's fiction might not enjoy fiction with the same setting of Baltimore (which databases always offer), not all readers of nonfiction are drawn to their favorite titles solely based on their subject matters. Lance Armstrong understood this principle when he titled his autobiography It's Not About the Bike. It really wasn't about the bike, but rather his very human experiences and challenges leading up to his making history with his bike. Think about it: was Seabiscuit more about horse-racing, or was its most elemental appeal its story of the triumph of the underdog?
4. Expand your understanding of appeal factors to include nonfiction examples.
Nonfiction readers are not from another planet. Many of the same characteristics that often draw readers to certain fiction titles also apply to nonfiction titles and readers. Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe is not only a rigorous work of science (specifically physics); it is also a beautifully written text that offers its readers the appeal factor of language. The vast majority of memoirs offer vivid and complex characterization of both their authors and their supporting casts. Walden would be nothing without its setting; Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm will bring a reader to the edge of their seat as quickly as any story-driven thriller or adventure novel.
5. Start thinking of nonfiction in terms of "genre".
Many fiction readers enjoy stories that conform to recognizable and enjoyable genre formats (conventions). Although our library nonfiction collections are more often organized along subject rather than "reader interest" lines, that shouldn't stop us from being aware that genre categories do exist for nonfiction books. A few of the most recognizable include true adventure (Into Thin Air; The Perfect Storm), travel (The Cloud Forest, A Year in Provence), true crime (In Cold Blood, The Stranger beside Me), investigative writing (Nickel and Dimed, The World Is Flat), and environmental or nature writing (Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Desert Solitaire). Unsure where to start your thinking along nonfiction genre lines? Visit a bookstore and take some category and title notes!
6. Mine the materials.
Unlike works of fiction, nonfiction books are often based on or at least refer to any number of other nonfiction (and sometimes even fiction) titles. Even if you haven't read a book, a quick perusal of the notes, references, or even bibliographies provided by the author can provide you with numerous clues to the book's subject and tone, as well as providing ready-made lists of related reads and read-alikes. Pete Hamill provides a short list of related urban and New York reads at the end of his memoir of life in that city (Downtown), while new classics such as Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point and Alain de Botton's On Travel refer to numerous other related or inspiring books in their own texts.
It's a brand new world of nonfiction out there, but even the most dedicated of fiction readers no longer need fear the intimidating stacks "across the aisle"; they are, after all, populated with books that offer unique writing styles, character-driven human interest stories, a wealth of both familiar and exotic settings, and any number of unforgettable (and true) stories. Fiction and nonfiction already share physical bookstore and library space; it's up to us to make sure they're both represented in our readers' advisory services as well.
Sarah Statz Cords is a librarian who works at both the reference and circulation desks of the Alicia Ashman branch of the Madison Public Library; and she teaches "Reading Interests of Adults" at the School of Library and Information Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is also the author of the forthcoming The Real Story: A Guide to Nonfiction Reading Interests (Libraries Unlimited, forthcoming March 2006) as well as the blog Nonfiction Readers Anonymous (http://nonanon.blogspot.com). She is a consulting editor for the Reader's Advisor Online, forthcoming from Libraries Unlimited in Spring 2006.