Passive displays are an excellent way of appealing to almost every person who comes to the library. If they come to the library for books--rather than to print, for example--they are likely to take the time to examine an attractive display. I've often seen on social media "Blind Dates" with romance books. The books would be completely wrapped in pretty paper and bows. Only a small snippet of information would be visible on the paper, usually handwritten for that personalized feel. I think a cool variation of this would be to do it with horror novels.
I envision the horror novels would be wrapped in spooky, somber paper. Perhaps a nice black with gold accents. Bonus points for skulls or tombstones. Then, there could be notes attached to the books that hint at the theme, the monster, or the conflict. For instance, the book that I am going to annotate this week, Stephen Graham Jones' The Only Good Indians, follows four Blackfeet men pursued by the manifestation of their past mistakes. This book could be given a variety of notes to appeal to the reader...
- "Your mistakes are always watching." - theme
- "Ever been chased by an herbivore?" - monster (also kind of parodic)
- "Can we ever truly outgrow our childhood friends?" - conflict
- Gore
- Violence
- Animal death
- Guns
I think it would be so neat to see a "blind date with a book" but for horror novels instead of romance. I've seen some local bookstores doing the "blind date" idea for every genre, but most libraries I've visited usually opt for romance. Good call on the content warnings for these, though, since horror can encompass so many areas and subjects. Some people may not like gore, but love supernatural elements (or vice versa)!
ReplyDeleteHi Grace! I think a blind date with something spooky could be a lot of fun! However, is anyone actually going on real blind dates anymore? It seems impossible to avoid spoilers about the person you are seeing or the book you want to read! I feel like I like to know exactly what I'm getting into in all aspects of my life, but then again, maybe that's just some untreated anxiety and not something that we should worry about when recommending blind date books to patrons!
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing idea Grace! I am currently doing a "Blind Date with a Book" display with Romance/Gentle Reads, but I might do this for October with our video games and movies as well!
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of content warnings is a good one. I'm writing my research paper on spice-level ratings, as readers' spice appreciation differs. For a "blind date" display especially, content and spice warnings would be especially helpful since the patron would not be able to try to glean contents by reading the book jacket or flipping through the pages before choosing to read the book.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a new and fun take! Great idea!
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