Three ways to market fiction for adults

Displays: Fiction displays are my favorite. I find a theme, make a sign, and put out books that go with the theme.  Some themes

•     Twist at the end
•     Books that will make you cry
•     Hungry for a mystery? (food theme cozy mysteries)
•     Horror for Halloween
•     As seen on TV (celebrity book picks)

I would welcome suggestions for more and look forward to reading everyone's blog posts this week!

Book Clubs: This is a small audience, but I give my club three or four choices every month, presenting them with mini-book-talks. Participants often jot down titles that didn't get picked for their own TBR. We also put up a sign and send out emails to the participants and another dozen or so armchair participants (folks who like to read along but don't attend the club meeting--they will often give staff their two cents on the month's title).

Hot books flyer: The collection development department puts out a flyer every week that highlights new books being released that week, particularly those that are getting good buzz in the media. The flyer features 20 book covers but no description. If I had the opportunity, I would change this to include brief descriptions or reviewer quotes--something to indicate what makes the book noteworthy. This would require more work and more paper, as the flyer would need to become two flyers (one for fiction, one for nonfiction) or it would have to feature fewer titles to fit on a page.

One more way, video book talks: My library releases these occasionally via Facebook. I think there are other avenues that we don't use, but I'm not sure (other social media like YouTube, TikTok). I have made a couple and get the impression that they are not featured regularly but as staff find time to make a video. With unlimited resources, I'd ask every staff member to make one per year to add to a video library.

Week 14 prompt: Urban Fiction and LGBTQ books placement

Urban Fiction is its own genre and I would shelve those books separately. The branch where I used to work did so and also moved the section to a more visible location and circulation went up: I had a patron ask for Sister Soulja books and she was delighted to learn that there was a whole collection of books in the same vein. 

Three reasons to shelve Urban Fiction separately

1. It is a distinct genre. Urban Fiction doesn't lump all Black authors together, it is specifically for "street" themes.

2. Keeping Urban Fiction on its own shelves would allow a fan of one author or title to easily discover additional "read-alike" books.

3. I don't have a third reason to do it. 

LGBTQ fiction is a broader collection of titles that are by and/or feature LGBTQ characters. It's not a single genre and features several populations. I would not shelve these separately but integrate them into the adult fiction collection.

Three reasons to keep LGBTQ books integrated with the rest of general fiction

1. It is not a distinct genre. "LGBTQ fiction" would include multiple genres.

2. Separating every book featuring LGBTQ characters or themes would be "othering" this diverse group.

3. Shelving LGBTQ books with other fiction would allow a patron to pick up a book they may not have otherwise done, encouraging diverse reading.

Blog prompt week 13 YA/NA as a genre

Week 13 Prompt: Though this week's group of "genres" all seem very different, they all have in common the fact that many people don't feel that they are legitimate literary choices and libraries shouldn't be spending money on them or promoting them to adults. The common belief is that adults still don't or shouldn't read that stuff. How can we as librarians, work to ensure that we are able to serve adults who enjoy YA literature or graphic novels? Or should we? I can't wait to read your thoughts on this. Thanks!

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So this morning I tried to explain YA and NA to my mom and I confess, it boiled down to the ages of the protagonists and the sexual content. "Coming-of-age" seems a little generic of a description, but so does "protagonists 18-26 years old." I'm at a loss. And I confess: in the deepest recesses of my brain, I think I consider YA and NA books... kind of immature. Naive. And maybe that's what they are--there is no omniscient narrator to provide wisdom or context. Is that true or fair to say? I'm not really sure. Also, there are a gazillion books that treat coming-of-age without being shelved with the YA/NA books--what makes them more "adult?" My guess is, again, the wisdom of the narration. I would welcome comments that support or refute this judge-y claim!

Now I'm racking my brain for fiction that covers young adults but gets shelved in adult fiction--The Lincoln Highway, Huck Finn, Where the Crawdads Sing, The Goldfinch, To Kill a Mockingbird... What makes these literature? Or just adult fiction?

All my judgment aside, I still think the genre is worthy of existing, for the simple reason that readers are drawn to it so it's a convenient category. And I don't think that adults "shouldn't" be reading YA/NA books; everyone has their preferences and its none of my business beyond how I can help them find what they want.

I asked my friend in Collection Development about how they label teen books. If the publisher says it's a teen book, it gets labeled as such. If the publisher doesn't say, they check Amazon and Baker & Taylor for audience age ranges or grades. She made a good point--a book marked "teen" may be considered age-appropriate by teen readers or their parents.

My library doesn't separate out NA, but this gives me an idea for a book display: "As seen on TikTok!" As Colleen Hoover and Rebecca Yarros continue to hit bestseller status, perhaps its fair to say that NA readers already know how to find what they like.

Nonfiction RA Matrix: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures by Anne Fadiman

Note: I read this book about 25 years ago. It has stayed with me ever since. 

1. Where is the book on the narrative continuum?

    A mix (combines highly narrative moments with periods of fact-based prose)

2. What is the subject of the book?

    A Hmong immigrant family in California has a daughter with epilepsy. The family believes in an animist, holistic treatment for what they believe to be a spiritual problem; American doctors prescribed western medicines. These disparate approaches, both equally rigid, are a source of exasperation for all parties involved.

3. What type of book is it?

    Ethnographic science writing

4. Articulate appeal

    What is the pacing of the book?  Thoughtful and patient

    How does the story feel?  Earnest, compelling

    What is the intent of the author? To introduce readers to the Hmong culture and history and to encourage cross-cultural understanding in the medical community.

    What is the focus of the story?  The Lee family's predicament in particular, Hmong history for context, Western medicine policies and practice

    Does the language matter?  Yes, the writing both describes and provokes strong emotions as two cultures collide and emphatically disagree about what is happening and what should be done about it.

    Is the setting important and well described?  Very, starting with a description of a Hmong woman's childbirth experience (in total silence) to the American clinical setting to the Lees' apartment where the family sacrifices a pig in an attempt to return Lia's spirit to her body.

    Are there details and, if so, what? So many! Fadiman makes use of lists to convey a sense of overwhelming differentness, writes in detail about the history of the Hmong in Laos and beyond including their involvement with the CIA, Hmong spirituality, ethics, customs, and etiquette; she covers Lia's medical treatments (27 prescription changes in 4 years) and hospital practices and policies.

    Are there sufficient charts and other graphic materials? Are they useful and clear?  There might be maps; I don't recall

    Does the book stress moments of learning, understanding, or experience? Experiences are described in detail, but it's actually the lack of learning or understanding each other (the Lees and the doctors) that makes this story so compelling.

5. Why would a reader enjoy this book (rank appeal)

    1 Authenticity

    2 Ideas

    3 Plot

Literary fiction annotation: Crook Manifesto

Author:   Colson Whitehead

Title:      Crook Manifesto

Genre:   Literary Fiction

Publication Date:  2023

Number of pages:  319

Geographical Setting: Harlem, N.Y., USA

Time Period:  1970’s

Series: yes, second of the Harlem trilogy

Plot Summary:  Former fence Ray Carney returns from Harlem Shuffle, older, out of the crime game and the owner of a furniture store. Until his daughter wants Jackson Five tickets and Carney is drawn into a deadly scheme enacted by a crooked cop. Two years later, Carney’s partner Pepper produces a Blaxploitation film rife with setbacks. Three years after that, Carney and Pepper try to make sense of the frequent fires going up in bicentennial Harlem, including one that killed a neighbor child. Rich descriptions of Harlem, its characters and characteristics tie these three stories together as illustrative of an era and a place that is unique in American history.

Subject Headings:

Harlem–fiction

African Americans–fiction

Blaxploitation–fiction

Crime–fiction

Appeal:

• Setting:  Harlem the neighborhood is as much a character as the individuals that comprise it. Harlem of the time was filled with criminals in and out of law enforcement, small shops and restaurants, run-down apartment buildings, fancy clubs, and a broad cast of characters that embody the neighborhood.

• Language:  Whitehead is an artful writer, waxing poetic as narrator, capturing the cadence and slang of 1970’s Harlem (read aloud beautifully by Dion Graham on the audiobook).

• Time Frame: Set in 1971, 1973, and 1976, each segment of the book deals with politics, crime, Black entertainment, family, housing, and fashion of the era. 

Three terms that best describe the book: Gritty, humorous, descriptive

Three relevant non-fiction works and authors (why are they similar?)

• Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts

Rhodes-Pitts explores 100 years of Harlem, highlighting both the famous and the average residents of a storied community rich with its own culture and history. An acclaimed autobiography, the author chronicles her own life and the life of Harlem itself as gentrification threatens its identity. In Whitehead’s novel and Rhodes-Pitts’ autobiography, Harlem is treated almost as its own character with a rich backstory and colorful residents.

• Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation Cinema, Odie Henderson

Film Critic Henderson fondly reviews Blaxploitation classics like Shaft and SuperFly. These films were critiqued for promoting negative stereotypes of African Americans but were box office hits for Black Americans who wanted to see Black actors playing strong characters. Henderson celebrates the genre while pointing out its misogyny and other flaws. Whitehead’s Nefertiti TNT is typical of Blaxploitation films of the 1970’s

• The Harlem Reader: A Celebration of New York’s Most Famous Neighborhood, From the Renaissance Years to the Twenty-first Century, edited by Herb Boyd

This anthology of essays, poems, fiction, memoir, and more portrays Harlem as celebrated as well as despised. The Reader shares accounts by famous and everyday citizens, capturing the multifaceted neighborhood in all its contradictions and its rich history.

Three relevant fiction works and authors:

• Deacon King Kong, James McBride

Set in 1969 Brooklyn, this novel too treats the character of a whole community as antagonist. Both novels are gritty, funny, dark, and hopeful.

• Carmen and Grace, Melissa Coss Aquino

A crime novel that is also social commentary, Carmen and Grace focuses on how crime infiltrates the Latin areas of the Bronx in the 2000’s, compared to Whitehead’s crime-infested Harlem of the 1970’s.

• Blacktop Wasteland, S.A. Cosby

Both novels feature characters driven to complete one last crime in their violent African American communities.

Week 11 Blog prompt: ebooks and audiobooks

There is something to be said for physical books--the weight, the smell, the bookmark indicating how far along you are in the reading--but maybe those delights pale in comparison to technological advances now or in the future. In "The Surprisingly Big Business of Library E-books," Gross (2021) credited the COVID-19 lockdown for a rapid growth in the use of e-books. Now that we are a couple of years past it (though still recovering from our trauma), I wonder if e-book sales have waned. I doubt it.

A senior patron I know prefers e-books now for the following reasons:

1. Not as heavy to hold and read
2. Not as heavy to carry; you can take lots of books with you on a single device
3. You can make the print as large as you need to
4. Dictionary definitions on demand
5. Easily referring back to the first time a character is introduced "X-Ray" app, she called it
6. Remote access; no need to go to the library

Bonus appeal factor: changing fonts for dyslexics

Audiobooks have reached new audiences--including me, recently, for this class. Reading, once a favorite pastime, has become difficult for me, so I chose to listen to five books over the past couple of months. Instant appeal factors:

1. I have always been a slow reader, hearing the words in my head as I read, so listening takes no longer than reading does. However this may be a strike against audiobooks for fast readers
2. Talented voice actors can do different voices for different characters, making dialogue easier to follow. The House in the Cerulean Sea, read by Daniel Henning, succeeded in doing character voices.
3. Talented voice actors can also convey emotion, alter the pace to match the story, and use accents and slang that are foreign to the reader. Crook Manifesto, read by Dion Graham, does a wonderful job with pacing, emotion, and slang. "Shee-iiiit" needs to be read aloud a certain way.
4. Of course, there are also untalented voice actors. Or talented voice actors reading dumb books (I'm looking at you Will Wheaton, for your reading of Ready Player One).
5. Easier to focus on than a printed book
6. Somehow also easy to be doing something else while listening--I like paint by numbers.

Bonus appeal factor: I had a foreign language speaking patron at my old branch who liked to check out a hard copy and an audiobook and read along to improve his English.

A note on the Cerulean Sea narration--I liked the character voices, but thought the narration was "wrong"--wrong emphasis, wrong cadence, but I was able to "hear" it the way I would have read it in my head as I listened. It was an odd sort of stereo experience.

Here's the paint by numbers I finished while listening to The House in the Cerulean Sea--kind of a good match!

Fantasy--The House in the Cerulean Sea

 Author:  T.J. Klune

Title:   The House in the Cerulean Sea

Genre:   Fantasy

Publication date: March 2020

Number of pages: 396

Geographical Setting: An alternative England

Time Period: Present day or near future

Series: Yes, but no sequel yet

Plot Summary: Linus Baker is a low-level bureaucrat, a case worker in the Department of Magical Youth. He lives a solitary life with his cat until Extremely Upper Management assigns him a very special case: an island orphanage headed by the quirky Arthur Parnassus. Each of the children has their own magical identity: a sprite, a gnome, a wyvern, a mysterious green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the son of Satan. In an imagined England that is wary if not downright suspicious of magical creatures, Linus has the task of ensuring that the children are safe and well cared for. What he discovers is a newfound family.

Subject Headings:

Orphanage–fiction

Bureaucracy–fiction

LGBTQ romance

Mythological creatures–fiction

Appeal:

Genre–The House in the Cerulean Sea is a fantasy book that features magical realism. 

Sexuality–a “clean” gay love story, the couple in question dance together and later move in together. That’s the extent of the sex in this book.

Setting–a juxtaposition between soul-crushing bureaucracy and magical whimsy with a hint of cultural intolerance in an imagined England.

Three terms that best describe this book: Sweet, funny, romantic

3 relevant non-fiction works and authors (why are they similar?)

• Treasury of Fantastic and Mythological Creatures: 1,087 Renderings from Historic Sources, Richard Huber

Klune’s novel describes several fantastic creatures who are likely featured in this treasury.

• Magical Miniature Gardens and Homes: Create Tiny Worlds of Fairy Magic & Delight with Natural, Hand-Made Decor, Donni Webber

Gardening is an important hobby for some of the characters in Cerulean Sea. This book instructs in creating gardens that share Klune’s sense of whimsy.

• The Road Less Traveled: A Memoir of Adoption, Special Needs, Detours, and Love, Heidi Renee

All of the children in Cerulean Sea have special needs and are loved by their adults. 

3 relevant fiction works and authors

• Legends & Lattes, Travis Baldree

Gentle fantasy, found families, and heartwarming romance are featured in both books.

• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, Sangu Mandanna

Gentle fantasy, found families, and heartwarming romance are featured in this book as well.

• Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire

Contemporary fantasy featuring magical children.

Book Club experience

I attended my own branch’s well established book club. It meets monthly in the branch’s only meeting room on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 4pm and is comprised of all white retirees. I don’t usually attend (reading is a challenge for me) but I provide the group with 3-4 titles each month from which to choose for the following month’s discussion. Usually but not always there is one nonfiction book included among the choices. The club’s leader is the branch’s assistant manager, who in addition to reading the selection looks for information about the book or author to share with the group.

This month’s selection was Lisa See’s historical novel Lady Tan’s Circle of Women. The assistant manager shared a photo of “the marriage bed” referred to in the novel. The photo is of the marriage bed inherited by the author who, like the characters in her book, is of Chinese descent. After that, the only question she needed to ask was, “well, what did you think?” and the discussion took off.  The only man in the club chose not to finish the book (he prefers nonfiction and occasionally literary fiction). He and I were still welcomed into the discussion.

No one dominated the discussion, and no questions or discussion prompts were needed. The group reflected on the ending, wondered why a character behaved differently than expected, agreed that Asian cultures prefer conforming over standing out compared to Westerners. They remarked on sexism in the book, the difference between doctors’ and midwives’ expectations and exposure to patients, and the use of concubines to assure that male heirs were born. The assistant manager shared that she’d read a review of the book that alluded to the friendship between two women as a “thinly veiled” relationship. No one in the group saw it as anything more than a friendship. Everyone participated, including me. Near the end of the hour, I shared three novels and a nonfiction book with the group to choose from. They elected to read Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake for next month (because it was set in Michigan) and also Ben Raines’ The Last Slave Ship (because it was true) for the following month.

The public library system I work for has been talking a lot about combating loneliness being an important role the library can play in the community.  At the end of the club meeting, one of the more elderly participants shared that she is going through an emotional time preparing to move out of her house of 30 years.  The group offered words of encouragement and asked her questions about what she was looking for in a new home and assured her that book club members were friends, too. The man in the book club has told me more than once that the library is his “sanctuary.”  

My library system is also working to centralize all programming and recently defined clubs as patron-led groups that require no staff time.  Another book club run by the Main branch is also led by staff, who told me they are meeting with the Programming department to make an argument for staff-led book clubs, even if other clubs may be run without staff support (e.g. Euchre clubs). I know that my branch’s club has tried taking turns choosing the book and leading the discussion, but found they much prefer that staff take on those roles, if for no other reason than to avoid hurt feelings if someone doesn’t like that month’s book selection. 

Special Topics: Steam ratings for romance books

I wrote my paper on "steam" ratings after attempting to help a patron who asked for "sexy books." I found two different websites that accepted reader-submitted descriptions and ratings for both quality and sexual content. Allaboutromance.com and romance.io both have five point sensuality/steam scales that are comparable, beginning with kisses/innocent and ending with burning/explicit-and-plentiful. The websites agreed with my assessment of Colleen Hoover (however only one site had a listing for the title It Ends with Us) (a 3 rating) and of TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea (a 1 rating). Helpful!

Also, limited. With fewer contributors, fewer titles are reviewed leaving a mainstream book like Hoover's out. The other important limitation of these sites is that with fewer contributors, the ratings can skew more easily. While both sites provide descriptions of each point on their five-point scale in the interest of objectivity, contributors may disagree. On a site like Goodreads.com, there are hundreds of thousands of reviews which makes for a more reliable score than either of the romance sites, which only receive a couple dozen reviews at most. A final limitation is that the sites focus on romances, which may leave out a lot of other books that contain (or don't) steamy sex scenes. I'm reminded of the blog assignment where a patron asked for a "clean" mystery. Neither site had reviews for mystery author CJ Box, for example.

Finally, what does the American Library Association have to say about rating scales? The ALA Bill of Rights maintains that readers are to be free to choose whatever they want to read. Yes, of course. And that rating scales can be--but are not required to be--included in records with the source of the rating score identified and an explanation that no rating scales are endorsed by the ALA. My conclusion was to keep steaminess stickers off of book spines, but to keep both websites in mind when advising readers who specifically ask for a certain type of book.

On a titillating note, check out some of the titles on romance.io's site--they really go down the rabbit hole of alternative romances, including a whole fictional universe called the omniverse that has its own rules about alpha and beta personalities, and books that are so over-the-top, they made me blush more than Fifty Shades of Grey.

Relationship Fiction: It Ends with Us

 Author: Colleen Hoover

Title: It Ends with Us

Genre: Emotion—Relationship fiction

Publication Date: 2016

Number of Pages: 384

Geographical Setting: a small town in Maine and Boston MA

Time Period: present day (2016) and 2007

Series (If applicable): It Ends with Us series (2 books)

Plot Summary: Reeling from her father’s funeral, Lily meets a handsome doctor (Ryle) who says he doesn’t want a relationship, ever. After it turns out Ryle is the brother of her new friend Alyssa, they begin to see each other, tentatively. As Lily and Ryle’s relationship grows into something far more serious, Lily revisits her teenage diaries, which tell the story of her first relationship with a homeless boy named Atlas and her father’s abuse of her mother. Spoiler: As Lily finds herself forgiving Ryle for hurting her, she gains an understanding of her mother’s choices and ultimately makes the decision to leave him.

Subject Headings:

Man-woman relationships – fiction

Triangles (interpersonal relations) – fiction

Business women – fiction

Neurosurgeons – fiction

First loves – fiction

Boston (Mass.) – fiction

Domestic violence – fiction

Appeal:

Relationships—It Ends with Us focuses on romantic relationships in youth and early adulthood, the complexities of loving someone dangerously flawed, and friendships that endure.

Sexuality—The novel does not shy away from intimate encounters.

Pacing—Hoover’s novel clips along at a rapid pace, providing a sense of tenuous control of Lily’s life and loves.

             

3 terms that best describe this book: bittersweet, tense, hopeful

Similar Authors and Works (why are they similar?):

3 Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors

Goodbye, Sweet Girl: A Story of Domestic Violence and Survival, Kelly Sundberg

              This is a memoir about surviving domestic violence and the loving relationship that confused Sundberg for nearly a decade.

No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us, Rachel Louise Snyder 

              Snyder explores the epidemic of domestic violence as providing the roots of more public acts of violence.

Small Business for Dummies, Eric Tyson and Jim Schell

              Lily starts her own business in It Ends with Us, and Atlas owns his own restaurant.  

 

3 Relevant Fiction Works and Authors

The Happiness Plan, Susan Mallery

              Three best friends navigate their own relationships; like It Ends with Us, Novelist describes this book as “heartwrenching, moving, and intricately plotted” with the theme of “surviving abuse.”

Love and Other Words, Christina Lauren

              Both books are about bumping into their first loves while in relationships with someone else. Lauren’s book is less intense than Hoover’s.

Under Her Skin, Adriana Anders

              Both books are about heroines who survive abuse and the gentler men whose paths they cross.

Week 7 Prompt response: authentic voices in fiction

In the TV show “The X Files,” David Duchovny’s character has a poster of a UFO with the message below, “I want to believe.” We do. To quote Menand’s “Literary Hoaxes and the ethics of authorship (2020),” “We are complicit in the attempt to get us to believe because we already want to believe. Writing is a weak medium. It has to rely on readers bringing a lot of preconceptions to the encounter, which is why it is so easily exploited.” I trust fiction authors like Khaled Hosseini. Jhumpa Lahiri, Sandra Cisneros for two reasons: the spellings of their names and that their stories ring true. I’m not reading fiction for facts, but I expect to be exposed to “realistic” cultures and eras beyond my own experience. I’d like to pick apart both of those reasons.

Voice. Social scientists I read in the 90’s were passionate about authenticity of authors–nobody can speak for anyone else. I recall one book (but not its title!) that claimed that one shouldn’t write for any voice that didn’t match one’s (socially constructed) demographics: only a Latin paraplegic lesbian could write about Latin paraplegic lesbians, for example. Taken this far, I concluded, the only thing anyone should be “allowed” to write is an autobiography. No room for imagination or research to fill in gaps in one’s knowledge of another’s experience. “If you were not born it, you should not perform it,” explained Menand. Taken to the extreme, this is absurd. So what does that mean for authenticity in fiction–I guess I’m comfortable with some murkiness in the realm of the authentic voice, at least enough to tolerate (and thoroughly enjoy) fiction. But I do want to read about another culture as it’s been written by an insider of that culture. And I trust my authors to be who they claim to be. There is another sociocultural issue going on: we are extra sensitive to exploitation of minority groups, appropriating cultural artifacts that we, in polite society, have no business taking advantage of.

I am reading a novel right now about Black culture in the 70’s, written by a Black author. The story, the social and family dynamics, the style, and the language ring true. And I wouldn’t feel right reading this novel if it were written by a White person–but… But I think that has more to do with current affairs and respect for underrepresented authors portraying underrepresented characters. Set in the 70’s, the book I’m reading is historical fiction. This author didn’t live in Harlem in the 70’s; he had to research the time and setting for the book in order for it to ring true. I guess I’m trusting that he did so and is giving me a realistic portrayal of a time and place that neither of us experienced, but only he has the cultural authority to bring to life on the page. I don’t hold all authors and novels to that strict adherence to appropriateness. Louis de Bernieres is an English author who has written historical fiction outside his own ancestors’ cultural maps (unidentified Latin American country, fictional Turkish/Ottoman village). I trust him, too, to have done his research. De Bernieres’ novels ring true. Of course, he is not claiming to represent a particular group or to tell a true story. Is that why I give him a pass?

Finally, I’d like to recommend a novel I read several years ago. What is the What, by Dave Eggers, is the true but fictionalized story of a Sudanese man. As I recall, Eggers’ introduction explained that it was the life story of a real Sudanese he interviewed several times, but that it would have been too difficult to pin down actual facts and produce a true biography, so he and the Sudanese subject agreed that Eggers would write a fictional story that instead rang true–the experiences, relationships, emotions were authentic even if dates were invented and characters were amalgamations. I trust this author and would feel very betrayed if I were to find out that the Sudanese man was also a figure of his imagination.

Reference

Menard, L. (2024, February 23). Literary hoaxes and the ethics of authorship. New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazien/2018/10/literary-hoaxes-and-the-ethics-of-authorship

Sci-Fi annotation: Ready Player One

Author: Ernest Cline

Title: Ready Player One

Genre: Intellect—Science Fiction

Publication Date: 2011

Number of Pages: 384

Geographical Setting: Oklahoma City, Columbus OH, and cyberspace

Time Period: 2045

Series: Ready Player Two is the sequel

Plot Summary: In the not-too-distant future, climate change and an energy crisis have caused reality to become pretty bleak. Teenage Wade lives in abject poverty with three other families in one of many towers of trailers in a neighborhood known as the Stacks. To escape reality, he and the rest of civilization tune in to OASIS, a virtual reality world that dominates all culture and commerce on Earth. The brilliant and eccentric creator of the OASIS dies and leaves his fortune to whoever is the first to find an Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS world. Wade and other egg hunters, known as gunters, are on the hunt but so is IOI, a corporation that wants to take over and monetize the OASIS by any means necessary. When Wade finds the first key in the puzzle, his avatar becomes instantly world-famous. 80’s pop culture—both mainstream and nerd-specific—is embedded in many of the games, clues, and conversations.

Subject Headings:

Utopia–fiction

Dystopia–fiction

Virtual reality–fiction

Video games–fiction

Pop culture–fiction

Appeal:

Character: Features orphaned teenage and young adult computer/gamer geeks obsessed with 80’s pop culture.

Setting: Cline describes a bleak, chaotic, and violent reality rife with poverty and crime and also presents a virtual world where anything is possible yet much relies on 80’s SciFi lore.

Time Frame: Set just a generation into the future (2045), the book challenges readers to make the all-too-easy leap from our present-day sociocultural circumstances to a worst-case tomorrow.

 

3 terms that best describe this book: teen, adventure, virtual reality

Similar Authors and Works (why are they similar?):

3 Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors

The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution That Swept Virtual Reality, Blake J. Harris

       Like Wade, the creator of Oculus was a teenager living in a trailer. Like Ready Player One, the history of Oculus’s creation is a collaborative adventure story.

Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100, Michio Kaku

       Ready Player One is set halfway to Kaku’s imagined future; both consider the economic ramifications of technological advances.

Dawn of the New Everything: Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality, Jaron Lanier

       Lanier, the “father of virtual reality,” offers a book that is at once autobiography, science writing, and cultural commentary.

3 Relevant Fiction Works and Authors

The Impossible Fortress, Jason Rekulak

       Less action-oriented, The Impossible Fortress also features a teen romance and technological strategies, but this novel is actually set in the 1980’s.

The Endless Vessel, Charles Soule

       Both books are set in near-future dystopias where technology is required to fulfill a quest.

This is Not a Game, Walter Jon Williams

       Both near-future books feature a culturally-dominant virtual world that focuses on games and blurs the lines between reality and VR.