I visited a library to find a book that was similar to Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells. I found the librarian at the Information desk to be very friendly and anxious to help me. She was courteous and told me she was using Novelist and that it was available for me to use at home. After various searches, she came up with four books, two of which were not in and the other two that were not really what I was looking for. She then took me to the Fannie Flagg section after asking me if I was interested in her. I picked out one of her books that I would truly read but it wasn't really close to my original request. I was looking for something with a group of girls or women who have grown up together and have a special relationship, it didn't matter if it was in the South or not. So Flagg's books do have the settings in the South but not the same group feeling as Wells' book. This was mostly my fault, I believe. I was not completely honest with my answers to the questions she was asking me because I felt like I was dragging this out for too long - this was all coming from me, not from her.
This was an interesting exercise and result because I got to see how a patron would feel coming up to me, perhaps. No matter how friendly you are as a librarian, the patron may still feel like they are putting you out. I wonder how many patrons who I have helped go away with something they are not 100% happy with.
I was initially confused by your response, because you seem to be saying that the librarian did make a successful readalike suggestion in terms of finding an author that you might enjoy. But you did not feel like the experience was successful because you wanted the readalike to share a different aspect with the original book. Man, it still sounds confusing when I try to rewrite it! I would find your conundrum challenging because I haven't read the original book and just from looking at NoveList, I think I would end up giving you the same options the librarian did. "Women's Lives & Relationships" is an appeal term, but that doesn't mean that all that fall under that heading are treated in the same way.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I can definitely understand that feeling to wrap up the conversation. It just so happened that in my secret shopper experience, I tried to draw it out as long as I could in the hopes that the librarian would finally ask me about what I wanted!