Recommendations For Book Recommendation Lists

As the school year comes to an end and kids embark on a summer free of school but not of learning and discovery, all kinds of recommended reading lists are circulating.  Individual schools, teachers, school districts, libraries, publishers, and magazines or newspapers will share lists.  Mommy groups share book recommendations as do millions of Facebook posts from ordinary individuals.  So, whom do you listen to?

The American Library Association (ALA) offers tons of reading lists.  They are authorities on books and are well respected.  You can see their lists at www.ala.org/readinglists.  They also have lists of books that won awards, that were banned or challenged, and that would support the foundation for a home library.

A list of the classics can be found at http://als.lib.wi.us/Collegebound.html

www.ILoveLibraries.org/booklovers/recommended, an initiative by the ALA, is also a great resource of recommendations.

The International Literacy Association has excellent reading lists at www.reading.org/resources/booklists

Teachers select books, grade by grade, at www.teachersfirst.com/read-sel.cfm

Goodreads, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, The New York Times, Huffington Post and major media will share their recommended reading lists for the summer as well.

Lists, like reviews, rewards, and other rankings, are subjective, arbitrary, and limited by the knowledge, preferences, experiences and training of those who assemble and compile them. Still, they are a good place to start, considering how huge the book universe is.  Out of the millions of books available for sale, we need someone or something to guide us.

Recommendation lists likely take certain things into consideration: Sales, awards, critical reviews, usefulness of the book, and age appropriateness.  They also may look to balance the lists so that they mix old and new, provide varying viewpoints from authors with diverse backgrounds, and serve society well.  Many lists could be specific to a genre, age, region or other category.

Some people like to set goals for themselves or their kids. They may want to read a certain number of books each month or pages in a day.  They could be gunning to finish off an entire trilogy or book series.  Maybe their book club picked a theme or writer to absorb.  

Whatever the list covers and however far you get in reading all of the books you intend to read, enjoy the process and good luck in your pursuits.

Did You See These Posts?

March In A Parade For Authors: Our True Heroes

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-parade-for-writers-our-true-heroes.html

When Books Can Talk To Us At Book Expo America

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2015/06/when-books-talk-to-us-at-book-expo_2.html

Drink Up At The Book Pub Crawl And Get Drunk On Books

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2015/05/drink-up-at-book-crawl.html

Book Marketing Advice You Fin On A T-Shirt

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2015/06/book-marketing-advice-found-on-t-shirt.html

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015